Gatekeeping for voice intent processing

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, an audio playback device having at least one microphone captures a voice input. The playback device detects, within the voice input, at least one keyword from among a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device. The playback device determines, via a local natural language unit (NLU), an intent based on the keyword. The keyword is then evaluated based at least in part on a volume characteristic of the voice input. Based on the evaluation, the playback device either forgoes further processing of the voice input or performs a command in accordance with the determined intent.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present technology relates to consumer goods and, more particularly, to methods, systems, products, features, services, and other elements directed to voice-assisted control of media playback systems or some aspect thereof.

BACKGROUND

Options for accessing and listening to digital audio in an out-loud setting were limited until in 2002, when SONOS, Inc. began development of a new type of playback system. Sonos then filed one of its first patent applications in 2003, entitled “Method for Synchronizing Audio Playback between Multiple Networked Devices,” and began offering its first media playback systems for sale in 2005. The Sonos Wireless Home Sound System enables people to experience music from many sources via one or more networked playback devices. Through a software control application installed on a controller (e.g., smartphone, tablet, computer, voice input device), one can play what she wants in any room having a networked playback device. Media content (e.g., songs, podcasts, video sound) can be streamed to playback devices such that each room with a playback device can play back corresponding different media content. In addition, rooms can be grouped together for synchronous playback of the same media content, and/or the same media content can be heard in all rooms synchronously.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features, aspects, and advantages of the presently disclosed technology may be better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings, as listed below. A person skilled in the relevant art will understand that the features shown in the drawings are for purposes of illustrations, and variations, including different and/or additional features and arrangements thereof, are possible.

FIG. 1A is a partial cutaway view of an environment having a media playback system configured in accordance with aspects of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of the media playback system of FIG. 1A and one or more networks.

FIG. 2A is a functional block diagram of an example playback device.

FIG. 2B is an isometric diagram of an example housing of the playback device of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2C is a diagram of an example voice input.

FIG. 2D is a graph depicting an example sound specimen in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D and 3E are diagrams showing example playback device configurations in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of an example controller device in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are controller interfaces in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a message flow diagram of a media playback system.

FIG. 7A is a functional block diagram of certain components of an example network microphone device in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 7B is a functional block diagram illustrating an example state machine in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 shows example noise graphs illustrating analyzed sound metadata associated with background speech.

FIG. 9A shows a first portion of a table illustrating example command keywords and associated conditions in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 9B shows a second portion of a table illustrating example command keywords and associated conditions in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a media playback system and a cloud network in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of certain components of an example network microphone device in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 12 illustrates example voice input waveforms in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 13A-13C illustrate plots of example voice inputs and corresponding second derivatives in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an example method for wakewordless voice intent processing in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

The drawings are for purposes of illustrating example embodiments, but it should be understood that the inventions are not limited to the arrangements and instrumentality shown in the drawings. In the drawings, identical reference numbers identify at least generally similar elements. To facilitate the discussion of any particular element, the most significant digit or digits of any reference number refers to the Figure in which that element is first introduced. For example, element 103 a is first introduced and discussed with reference to FIG. 1A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Overview

Example techniques described herein involve keyword engines configured to detect commands. An example network microphone device (“NMD”) may implement such a keyword engine in parallel with a wake-word engine that invokes a voice assistant service (“VAS”). While a VAS wake-word engine may be involved with nonce wake words, a command-keyword engine is invoked with commands, such as “play” or “skip,” optionally without the need for a preceding wake word.

Network microphone devices may be used facilitate voice control of smart home devices, such as wireless audio playback devices, illumination devices, appliances, and home-automation devices (e.g., thermostats, door locks, etc.). An NMD is a networked computing device that typically includes an arrangement of microphones, such as a microphone array, that is configured to detect sound present in the NMD's environment. In some examples, an NMD may be implemented within another device, such as an audio playback device.

A voice input to such an NMD will typically include a wake word followed by an utterance comprising a user request. In practice, a wake word is typically a predetermined nonce word or phrase used to “wake up” an NMD and cause it to invoke a particular voice assistant service (“VAS”) to interpret the intent of voice input in detected sound. For example, a user might speak the wake word “Alexa” to invoke the AMAZON® VAS, “Ok, Google” to invoke the GOOGLE® VAS, “Hey, Siri” to invoke the APPLE® VAS, or “Hey, Sonos” to invoke a VAS offered by SONOS®, among other examples. In practice, a wake word may also be referred to as, for example, an activation-, trigger-, wakeup-word or -phrase, and may take the form of any suitable word, combination of words (e.g., a particular phrase), and/or some other audio cue.

In contrast to a predetermined nonce wake word that invokes a VAS, a keyword that invokes a command (referred to herein as a “command keyword”) may be a word or a combination of words (e.g., a phrase) that functions as a command itself, such as a playback command; or that functions as a combination of commands, such as a command to ungroup a playback device from a group of playback devices combined with a command to initiate, resume, or cease playback on the ungrouped device or other device(s) that formed the group. In some implementations, a command keyword may function as both a wake word and the command itself. That is, when a command-keyword engine detects a command keyword in recorded audio, the NMD may determine that a command-keyword event has occurred and responsively performs a command corresponding to the detected keyword. For instance, based on detecting the command keyword “pause,” the NMD causes playback to be paused. One advantage of a command-keyword engine is that the recorded audio does not necessarily need to be sent to a VAS for processing, which may result in a quicker response to the voice input as well as increased user privacy, among other possible benefits.

In some implementations described herein, a detected command-keyword event may cause one or more subsequent actions, such as local natural language processing of a voice input. For example, the NMD may include a local natural language unit (NLU), which can be an onboard natural language understanding processor, or any other component or combination of components configured to recognize language in sound input data. In contrast to an NLU implemented in one or more cloud servers that is capable of recognizing a wide variety of voice inputs, example local NLUs may be capable of recognizing a relatively small library of keywords (e.g., 10,000 intents, words and/or phrases), which facilitates practical implementation on the NMD. When the command-keyword engine generates a command-keyword event after detecting a command keyword in a voice input, the local NLU may process the voice input to look for keywords from the library and determine an intent from the found keywords. A command can then be performed according to the determined intent.

In some implementations, an intent determination may be one condition among one or more other conditions that must be detected before causing such actions. For example, following an initial indication that a keyword and corresponding intent is identified by the NLU, the NMD may evaluate characteristics of the voice input to apply confirmation conditions to the keyword detection and/or intent determination. In operation, this secondary confirmation step can reduce the rate of false positives, by precluding performance of the command following keyword detection via the NLU unless and until certain confirmatory conditions are met.

In various implementations, these conditions can take a variety of forms. Among examples, the NLU may evaluate the voice input to check for verbal conversational markers that distinguish an utterance containing a command intent from other kinds of human speech (e.g., background conversational speech). Such markers may include, for example, the detection of music-related or playback-related terms (in the context of audio playback control), such as “music,” “song,” “pause,” “resume,” etc. Negative markers, which may indicate that the voice input is not an utterance containing a command to be processed, include the presence of other object names (e.g., “washing machine,” “dog,” “homework,” and activities (e.g., “doing,” “washing”). Further examples of negative marker include sentence connectors (“and,” “if” “when,” “while”), future time indicators (e.g. “later,” “tonight”), and names and appellative terms (e.g., “Charles,” “mom”). These various markers can be identified, compared, and evaluated to determine whether the determined intent is a true utterance expressing a command or is instead a false positive (i.e., a voice input which was erroneously recognized as expressing a command intent).

Another condition to be applied in evaluating a determined intent may relate to the length of the voice input. User utterances containing a command are more likely to include short sentences, for example. Accordingly, a word count of the user input can be used to filter intent determination to reduce false positives. Additionally, command utterances are more likely to have extended silent periods than typical conversation (e.g., silent periods of greater than 500 ms preceding or following an utterance). As such, the NLU may evaluate the voice input to determine whether silent periods of greater than a predetermined threshold are present. If so, the determined intent is more likely to be a true positive. In some examples, the voice input can be evaluated for any type of non-keyword input, such as silent periods, reduced-volume periods (e.g., lower volume as compared to keyword portions of the voice input), audible but non-speech input (e.g., background noise, non-verbal utterances, coughs, etc.). In various examples, the periods of time attributable to such non-keyword inputs can be assessed to facilitate the intent determination.

In some examples, the voice input can be evaluated to identify changing voice levels over time. Large changes in voice levels over time (e.g., an increase at the beginning of an utterance and decrease at the end of an utterance) are more likely indicative of a true user command than constant background speech in which voice levels do not change as sharply over time. Accordingly, the change in voice level over time can be evaluated, such as by calculating a first or second derivative of the loudness of the captured audio (e.g., the root mean square of the output of an acoustic echo cancellation process). If the first or second derivative signal exceeds a predetermined threshold, this indicates sharp changes in voice level, then the voice input is more likely to be a true command utterance. Evaluating the voice level changes can be particularly useful during relatively loud audio playback, as the above-mentioned silent check may be infeasible under those conditions.

In some implementations, to confirm the intent determination via the NLU, the NLU may evaluate the voice input to identify a particular speaker (e.g., intent is only recognized if the voice matches that of an authorized user). Other conditions can relate to context cues, such as the current playback conditions of the NMD. For example, after detecting the command keyword “skip,” an example NMD generates a command-keyword event and skips to the next track only when certain playback conditions indicating that a skip should be performed are met. These playback conditions may include, for example, (i) a first condition that a media item is being played back, (ii) a second condition that a queue is active, and (iii) a third condition that the queue includes a media item subsequent to the media item being played back. If any of these conditions are not satisfied, the command-keyword event is not generated (and no skip is performed).

If a command keyword is detected, the NLU determines an intent, and any appropriate conditions are satisfied, the NMD may perform a command corresponding to the command keyword and/or the determined intent. In various examples, the NMD may automatically perform the command or may play back an audio response to the user requesting confirmation of the identified command (e.g., “Would you like to turn on the lights in the Living Room?”), after which a subsequent voice input from the user (e.g., “Yes” or “No”) can be processed to confirm the user's intent before proceeding with the identified command.

While some embodiments described herein may refer to functions performed by given actors, such as “users” and/or other entities, it should be understood that this description is for purposes of explanation only. The claims should not be interpreted to require action by any such example actor unless explicitly required by the language of the claims themselves.

Moreover, some functions are described herein as being performed “based on” or “in response to” another element or function. “Based on” should be understood that one element or function is related to another function or element. “In response to” should be understood that one element or function is a necessary result of another function or element. For the sake of brevity, functions are generally described as being based on another function when a functional link exists; however, such disclosure should be understood as disclosing either type of functional relationship.

II. Example Operation Environment

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate an example configuration of a media playback system 100 (or “MPS 100”) in which one or more embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented. Referring first to FIG. 1A, the MPS 100 as shown is associated with an example home environment having a plurality of rooms and spaces, which may be collectively referred to as a “home environment,” “smart home,” or “environment 101.” The environment 101 comprises a household having several rooms, spaces, and/or playback zones, including a master bathroom 101 a, a master bedroom 101 b, (referred to herein as “Nick's Room”), a second bedroom 101 c, a family room or den 101 d, an office 101 e, a living room 101 f, a dining room 101 g, a kitchen 101 h, and an outdoor patio 101 i. While certain embodiments and examples are described below in the context of a home environment, the technologies described herein may be implemented in other types of environments. In some embodiments, for example, the MPS 100 can be implemented in one or more commercial settings (e.g., a restaurant, mall, airport, hotel, a retail or other store), one or more vehicles (e.g., a sports utility vehicle, bus, car, a ship, a boat, an airplane), multiple environments (e.g., a combination of home and vehicle environments), and/or another suitable environment where multi-zone audio may be desirable.

Within these rooms and spaces, the MPS 100 includes one or more computing devices. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B together, such computing devices can include playback devices 102 (identified individually as playback devices 102 a-102 o), network microphone devices 103 (identified individually as “NMDs” 103 a-102 i), and controller devices 104 a and 104 b (collectively “controller devices 104”). Referring to FIG. 1B, the home environment may include additional and/or other computing devices, including local network devices, such as one or more smart illumination devices 108 (FIG. 1B), a smart thermostat 110, and a local computing device 105 (FIG. 1A). In embodiments described below, one or more of the various playback devices 102 may be configured as portable playback devices, while others may be configured as stationary playback devices. For example, the headphones 102 o (FIG. 1B) are a portable playback device, while the playback device 102 d on the bookcase may be a stationary device. As another example, the playback device 102 c on the Patio may be a battery-powered device, which may allow it to be transported to various areas within the environment 101, and outside of the environment 101, when it is not plugged in to a wall outlet or the like.

With reference still to FIG. 1B, the various playback, network microphone, and controller devices 102, 103, and 104 and/or other network devices of the MPS 100 may be coupled to one another via point-to-point connections and/or over other connections, which may be wired and/or wireless, via a network 111, such as a local area network (LAN) which may include a network router 109. As used herein, a local area network can include any communications technology that is not configured for wide area communications, for example, WiFi, Bluetooth, Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Ultra-WideBand, etc. For example, the playback device 102 j in the Den 101 d (FIG. 1A), which may be designated as the “Left” device, may have a point-to-point connection with the playback device 102 a, which is also in the Den 101 d and may be designated as the “Right” device. In a related embodiment, the Left playback device 102 j may communicate with other network devices, such as the playback device 102 b, which may be designated as the “Front” device, via a point-to-point connection and/or other connections via the NETWORK 111.

As further shown in FIG. 1B, the MPS 100 may be coupled to one or more remote computing devices 106 via a wide area network (“WAN”) 107. In some embodiments, each remote computing device 106 may take the form of one or more cloud servers. The remote computing devices 106 may be configured to interact with computing devices in the environment 101 in various ways. For example, the remote computing devices 106 may be configured to facilitate streaming and/or controlling playback of media content, such as audio, in the home environment 101.

In some implementations, the various playback devices, NMDs, and/or controller devices 102-104 may be communicatively coupled to at least one remote computing device associated with a VAS and at least one remote computing device associated with a media content service (“MCS”). For instance, in the illustrated example of FIG. 1B, remote computing devices 106 are associated with a VAS 190 and remote computing devices 106 b are associated with an MCS 192. Although only a single VAS 190 and a single MCS 192 are shown in the example of FIG. 1B for purposes of clarity, the MPS 100 may be coupled to multiple, different VASes and/or MCSes. In some implementations, VASes may be operated by one or more of AMAZON, GOOGLE, APPLE, MICROSOFT, SONOS or other voice assistant providers. In some implementations, MCSes may be operated by one or more of SPOTIFY, PANDORA, AMAZON MUSIC, or other media content services.

As further shown in FIG. 1B, the remote computing devices 106 further include remote computing device 106 c configured to perform certain operations, such as remotely facilitating media playback functions, managing device and system status information, directing communications between the devices of the MPS 100 and one or multiple VASes and/or MCSes, among other operations. In one example, the remote computing devices 106 c provide cloud servers for one or more SONOS Wireless HiFi Systems.

In various implementations, one or more of the playback devices 102 may take the form of or include an on-board (e.g., integrated) network microphone device. For example, the playback devices 102 a—e include or are otherwise equipped with corresponding NMDs 103 a—e, respectively. A playback device that includes or is equipped with an NMD may be referred to herein interchangeably as a playback device or an NMD unless indicated otherwise in the description. In some cases, one or more of the NMDs 103 may be a stand-alone device. For example, the NMDs 103 f and 103 g may be stand-alone devices. A stand-alone NMD may omit components and/or functionality that is typically included in a playback device, such as a speaker or related electronics. For instance, in such cases, a stand-alone NMD may not produce audio output or may produce limited audio output (e.g., relatively low-quality audio output).

The various playback and network microphone devices 102 and 103 of the MPS 100 may each be associated with a unique name, which may be assigned to the respective devices by a user, such as during setup of one or more of these devices. For instance, as shown in the illustrated example of FIG. 1B, a user may assign the name “Bookcase” to playback device 102 d because it is physically situated on a bookcase. Similarly, the NMD 103 f may be assigned the named “Island” because it is physically situated on an island countertop in the Kitchen 101 h (FIG. 1A). Some playback devices may be assigned names according to a zone or room, such as the playback devices 102 e, 102 l, 102 m, and 102 n, which are named “Bedroom,” “Dining Room,” “Living Room,” and “Office,” respectively. Further, certain playback devices may have functionally descriptive names. For example, the playback devices 102 a and 102 b are assigned the names “Right” and “Front,” respectively, because these two devices are configured to provide specific audio channels during media playback in the zone of the Den 101 d (FIG. 1A). The playback device 102 c in the Patio may be named portable because it is battery-powered and/or readily transportable to different areas of the environment 101. Other naming conventions are possible.

As discussed above, an NMD may detect and process sound from its environment, such as sound that includes background noise mixed with speech spoken by a person in the NMD's vicinity. For example, as sounds are detected by the NMD in the environment, the NMD may process the detected sound to determine if the sound includes speech that contains voice input intended for the NMD and ultimately a particular VAS. For example, the NMD may identify whether speech includes a wake word associated with a particular VAS.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1B, the NMDs 103 are configured to interact with the VAS 190 over a network via the network 111 and the router 109. Interactions with the VAS 190 may be initiated, for example, when an NMD identifies in the detected sound a potential wake word. The identification causes a wake-word event, which in turn causes the NMD to begin transmitting detected-sound data to the VAS 190. In some implementations, the various local network devices 102-105 (FIG. 1A) and/or remote computing devices 106 c of the MPS 100 may exchange various feedback, information, instructions, and/or related data with the remote computing devices associated with the selected VAS. Such exchanges may be related to or independent of transmitted messages containing voice inputs. In some embodiments, the remote computing device(s) and the MPS 100 may exchange data via communication paths as described herein and/or using a metadata exchange channel as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 15/438,749 filed Feb. 21, 2017, and titled “Voice Control of a Media Playback System,” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Upon receiving the stream of sound data, the VAS 190 determines if there is voice input in the streamed data from the NMD, and if so the VAS 190 will also determine an underlying intent in the voice input. The VAS 190 may next transmit a response back to the MPS 100, which can include transmitting the response directly to the NMD that caused the wake-word event. The response is typically based on the intent that the VAS 190 determined was present in the voice input. As an example, in response to the VAS 190 receiving a voice input with an utterance to “Play Hey Jude by The Beatles,” the VAS 190 may determine that the underlying intent of the voice input is to initiate playback and further determine that intent of the voice input is to play the particular song “Hey Jude.” After these determinations, the VAS 190 may transmit a command to a particular MCS 192 to retrieve content (i.e., the song “Hey Jude”), and that MCS 192, in turn, provides (e.g., streams) this content directly to the MPS 100 or indirectly via the VAS 190. In some implementations, the VAS 190 may transmit to the MPS 100 a command that causes the MPS 100 itself to retrieve the content from the MCS 192.

In certain implementations, NMDs may facilitate arbitration amongst one another when voice input is identified in speech detected by two or more NMDs located within proximity of one another. For example, the NMD-equipped playback device 102 d in the environment 101 (FIG. 1A) is in relatively close proximity to the NMD-equipped Living Room playback device 102 m, and both devices 102 d and 102 m may at least sometimes detect the same sound. In such cases, this may require arbitration as to which device is ultimately responsible for providing detected-sound data to the remote VAS. Examples of arbitrating between NMDs may be found, for example, in previously referenced U.S. application Ser. No. 15/438,749. When performing local command-keyword detection, as described in more detail below, it may be useful to forego or delay any such arbitration, such that two or more NMDs may process the same voice input for command-keyword detection. This can allow results of voice processing of two or more different NMDS to be compared to one another as a way to cross-check keyword detection results. In some embodiments, results of NLU determinations associated with different NMDs can be used to arbitrate between them. For example, if a first NLU associated with a first NMD identifies a keyword with a higher confidence level than that of a second NLU associated with the second NMD, then the first NMD may be selected over the second NMD.

In certain implementations, an NMD may be assigned to, or otherwise associated with, a designated or default playback device that may not include an NMD. For example, the Island NMD 103 f in the Kitchen 101 h (FIG. 1A) may be assigned to the Dining Room playback device 102 l, which is in relatively close proximity to the Island NMD 103 f. In practice, an NMD may direct an assigned playback device to play audio in response to a remote VAS receiving a voice input from the NMD to play the audio, which the NMD might have sent to the VAS in response to a user speaking a command to play a certain song, album, playlist, etc. Additional details regarding assigning NMDs and playback devices as designated or default devices may be found, for example, in previously referenced U.S. patent application No.

Further aspects relating to the different components of the example MPS 100 and how the different components may interact to provide a user with a media experience may be found in the following sections. While discussions herein may generally refer to the example MPS 100, technologies described herein are not limited to applications within, among other things, the home environment described above. For instance, the technologies described herein may be useful in other home environment configurations comprising more or fewer of any of the playback, network microphone, and/or controller devices 102-104. For example, the technologies herein may be utilized within an environment having a single playback device 102 and/or a single NMD 103. In some examples of such cases, the NETWORK 111 (FIG. 1B) may be eliminated and the single playback device 102 and/or the single NMD 103 may communicate directly with the remote computing devices 106-d. In some embodiments, a telecommunication network (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, etc.) may communicate with the various playback, network microphone, and/or controller devices 102-104 independent of a LAN.

a. Example Playback & Network Microphone Devices

FIG. 2A is a functional block diagram illustrating certain aspects of one of the playback devices 102 of the MPS 100 of FIGS. 1A and 1B. As shown, the playback device 102 includes various components, each of which is discussed in further detail below, and the various components of the playback device 102 may be operably coupled to one another via a system bus, communication network, or some other connection mechanism. In the illustrated example of FIG. 2A, the playback device 102 may be referred to as an “NMD-equipped” playback device because it includes components that support the functionality of an NMD, such as one of the NMDs 103 shown in FIG. 1A.

As shown, the playback device 102 includes at least one processor 212, which may be a clock-driven computing component configured to process input data according to instructions stored in memory 213. The memory 213 may be a tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium configured to store instructions that are executable by the processor 212. For example, the memory 213 may be data storage that can be loaded with software code 214 that is executable by the processor 212 to achieve certain functions.

In one example, these functions may involve the playback device 102 retrieving audio data from an audio source, which may be another playback device. In another example, the functions may involve the playback device 102 sending audio data, detected-sound data (e.g., corresponding to a voice input), and/or other information to another device on a network via at least one network interface 224. In yet another example, the functions may involve the playback device 102 causing one or more other playback devices to synchronously playback audio with the playback device 102. In yet a further example, the functions may involve the playback device 102 facilitating being paired or otherwise bonded with one or more other playback devices to create a multi-channel audio environment. Numerous other example functions are possible, some of which are discussed below.

As just mentioned, certain functions may involve the playback device 102 synchronizing playback of audio content with one or more other playback devices. During synchronous playback, a listener may not perceive time-delay differences between playback of the audio content by the synchronized playback devices. U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,395 filed on Apr. 4, 2004, and titled “System and method for synchronizing operations among a plurality of independently clocked digital data processing devices,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, provides in more detail some examples for audio playback synchronization among playback devices.

To facilitate audio playback, the playback device 102 includes audio processing components 216 that are generally configured to process audio prior to the playback device 102 rendering the audio. In this respect, the audio processing components 216 may include one or more digital-to-analog converters (“DAC”), one or more audio preprocessing components, one or more audio enhancement components, one or more digital signal processors (“DSPs”), and so on. In some implementations, one or more of the audio processing components 216 may be a subcomponent of the processor 212. In operation, the audio processing components 216 receive analog and/or digital audio and process and/or otherwise intentionally alter the audio to produce audio signals for playback.

The produced audio signals may then be provided to one or more audio amplifiers 217 for amplification and playback through one or more speakers 218 operably coupled to the amplifiers 217. The audio amplifiers 217 may include components configured to amplify audio signals to a level for driving one or more of the speakers 218.

Each of the speakers 218 may include an individual transducer (e.g., a “driver”) or the speakers 218 may include a complete speaker system involving an enclosure with one or more drivers. A particular driver of a speaker 218 may include, for example, a subwoofer (e.g., for low frequencies), a mid-range driver (e.g., for middle frequencies), and/or a tweeter (e.g., for high frequencies). In some cases, a transducer may be driven by an individual corresponding audio amplifier of the audio amplifiers 217. In some implementations, a playback device may not include the speakers 218, but instead may include a speaker interface for connecting the playback device to external speakers. In certain embodiments, a playback device may include neither the speakers 218 nor the audio amplifiers 217, but instead may include an audio interface (not shown) for connecting the playback device to an external audio amplifier or audio-visual receiver.

In addition to producing audio signals for playback by the playback device 102, the audio processing components 216 may be configured to process audio to be sent to one or more other playback devices, via the network interface 224, for playback. In example scenarios, audio content to be processed and/or played back by the playback device 102 may be received from an external source, such as via an audio line-in interface (e.g., an auto-detecting 3.5 mm audio line-in connection) of the playback device 102 (not shown) or via the network interface 224, as described below.

As shown, the at least one network interface 224, may take the form of one or more wireless interfaces 225 and/or one or more wired interfaces 226. A wireless interface may provide network interface functions for the playback device 102 to wirelessly communicate with other devices (e.g., other playback device(s), NMD(s), and/or controller device(s)) in accordance with a communication protocol (e.g., any wireless standard including IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.15, 4G mobile communication standard, and so on). A wired interface may provide network interface functions for the playback device 102 to communicate over a wired connection with other devices in accordance with a communication protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.3). While the network interface 224 shown in FIG. 2A include both wired and wireless interfaces, the playback device 102 may in some implementations include only wireless interface(s) or only wired interface(s).

In general, the network interface 224 facilitates data flow between the playback device 102 and one or more other devices on a data network. For instance, the playback device 102 may be configured to receive audio content over the data network from one or more other playback devices, network devices within a LAN, and/or audio content sources over a WAN, such as the Internet. In one example, the audio content and other signals transmitted and received by the playback device 102 may be transmitted in the form of digital packet data comprising an Internet Protocol (IP)-based source address and IP-based destination addresses. In such a case, the network interface 224 may be configured to parse the digital packet data such that the data destined for the playback device 102 is properly received and processed by the playback device 102.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the playback device 102 also includes voice processing components 220 that are operably coupled to one or more microphones 222. The microphones 222 are configured to detect sound (i.e., acoustic waves) in the environment of the playback device 102, which is then provided to the voice processing components 220. More specifically, each microphone 222 is configured to detect sound and convert the sound into a digital or analog signal representative of the detected sound, which can then cause the voice processing component 220 to perform various functions based on the detected sound, as described in greater detail below. In one implementation, the microphones 222 are arranged as an array of microphones (e.g., an array of six microphones). In some implementations, the playback device 102 includes more than six microphones (e.g., eight microphones or twelve microphones) or fewer than six microphones (e.g., four microphones, two microphones, or a single microphones).

In operation, the voice-processing components 220 are generally configured to detect and process sound received via the microphones 222, identify potential voice input in the detected sound, and extract detected-sound data to enable a VAS, such as the VAS 190 (FIG. 1B), to process voice input identified in the detected-sound data. The voice processing components 220 may include one or more analog-to-digital converters, an acoustic echo canceller (“AEC”), a spatial processor (e.g., one or more multi-channel Wiener filters, one or more other filters, and/or one or more beam former components), one or more buffers (e.g., one or more circular buffers), one or more wake-word engines, one or more voice extractors, and/or one or more speech processing components (e.g., components configured to recognize a voice of a particular user or a particular set of users associated with a household), among other example voice processing components. In example implementations, the voice processing components 220 may include or otherwise take the form of one or more DSPs or one or more modules of a DSP. In this respect, certain voice processing components 220 may be configured with particular parameters (e.g., gain and/or spectral parameters) that may be modified or otherwise tuned to achieve particular functions. In some implementations, one or more of the voice processing components 220 may be a subcomponent of the processor 212.

As further shown in FIG. 2A, the playback device 102 also includes power components 227. The power components 227 include at least an external power source interface 228, which may be coupled to a power source (not shown) via a power cable or the like that physically connects the playback device 102 to an electrical outlet or some other external power source. Other power components may include, for example, transformers, converters, and like components configured to format electrical power.

In some implementations, the power components 227 of the playback device 102 may additionally include an internal power source 229 (e.g., one or more batteries) configured to power the playback device 102 without a physical connection to an external power source. When equipped with the internal power source 229, the playback device 102 may operate independent of an external power source. In some such implementations, the external power source interface 228 may be configured to facilitate charging the internal power source 229. As discussed before, a playback device comprising an internal power source may be referred to herein as a “portable playback device.” On the other hand, a playback device that operates using an external power source may be referred to herein as a “stationary playback device,” although such a device may in fact be moved around a home or other environment.

The playback device 102 further includes a user interface 240 that may facilitate user interactions independent of or in conjunction with user interactions facilitated by one or more of the controller devices 104. In various embodiments, the user interface 240 includes one or more physical buttons and/or supports graphical interfaces provided on touch sensitive screen(s) and/or surface(s), among other possibilities, for a user to directly provide input. The user interface 240 may further include one or more of lights (e.g., LEDs) and the speakers to provide visual and/or audio feedback to a user.

As an illustrative example, FIG. 2B shows an example housing 230 of the playback device 102 that includes a user interface in the form of a control area 232 at a top portion 234 of the housing 230. The control area 232 includes buttons 236 a-c for controlling audio playback, volume level, and other functions. The control area 232 also includes a button 236 d for toggling the microphones 222 to either an on state or an off state.

As further shown in FIG. 2B, the control area 232 is at least partially surrounded by apertures formed in the top portion 234 of the housing 230 through which the microphones 222 (not visible in FIG. 2B) receive the sound in the environment of the playback device 102. The microphones 222 may be arranged in various positions along and/or within the top portion 234 or other areas of the housing 230 so as to detect sound from one or more directions relative to the playback device 102.

By way of illustration, SONOS, Inc. presently offers (or has offered) for sale certain playback devices that may implement certain of the embodiments disclosed herein, including a “PLAY:1,” “PLAY:3,” “PLAY:5,” “PLAYBAR,” “CONNECT:AMP,” “PLAYBASE,” “BEAM,” “CONNECT,” and “SUB.” Any other past, present, and/or future playback devices may additionally or alternatively be used to implement the playback devices of example embodiments disclosed herein. Additionally, it should be understood that a playback device is not limited to the examples illustrated in FIG. 2A or 2B or to the SONOS product offerings. For example, a playback device may include, or otherwise take the form of, a wired or wireless headphone set, which may operate as a part of the MPS 100 via a network interface or the like. In another example, a playback device may include or interact with a docking station for personal mobile media playback devices. In yet another example, a playback device may be integral to another device or component such as a television, a lighting fixture, or some other device for indoor or outdoor use.

FIG. 2C is a diagram of an example voice input 280 that may be processed by an NMD or an NMD-equipped playback device. The voice input 280 may include a keyword portion 280 a and an utterance portion 280 b. The keyword portion 280 a may include a wake word or a command keyword. In the case of a wake word, the keyword portion 280 a corresponds to detected sound that caused a command-keyword event. The utterance portion 280 b corresponds to detected sound that potentially comprises a user request following the keyword portion 280 a. An utterance portion 280 b can be processed to identify the presence of any words in detected-sound data by the NMD in response to the event caused by the keyword portion 280 a. In various implementations, an underlying intent can be determined based on the words in the utterance portion 280 b. In certain implementations, an underlying intent can also be based or at least partially based on certain words in the keyword portion 280 a, such as when keyword portion includes a command keyword. In any case, the words may correspond to one or more commands, as well as a certain command and certain keywords. A keyword in the voice utterance portion 280 b may be, for example, a word identifying a particular device or group in the MPS 100. For instance, in the illustrated example, the keywords in the voice utterance portion 280 b may be one or more words identifying one or more zones in which the music is to be played, such as the Living Room and the Dining Room (FIG. 1A). In some cases, the utterance portion 280 b may include additional information, such as detected pauses (e.g., periods of non-speech) between words spoken by a user, as shown in FIG. 2C. The pauses may demarcate the locations of separate commands, keywords, or other information spoke by the user within the utterance portion 280 b.

Based on certain command criteria, the NMD and/or a remote VAS may take actions as a result of identifying one or more commands in the voice input. Command criteria may be based on the inclusion of certain keywords within the voice input, among other possibilities. Additionally, or alternatively, command criteria for commands may involve identification of one or more control-state and/or zone-state variables in conjunction with identification of one or more particular commands. Control-state variables may include, for example, indicators identifying a level of volume, a queue associated with one or more devices, and playback state, such as whether devices are playing a queue, paused, etc. Zone-state variables may include, for example, indicators identifying which, if any, zone players are grouped.

In some implementations, the MPS 100 is configured to temporarily reduce the volume of audio content that it is playing upon detecting a certain keyword, such as a wake word, in the keyword portion 280 a. The MPS 100 may restore the volume after processing the voice input 280. Such a process can be referred to as ducking, examples of which are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIG. 2D shows an example sound specimen. In this example, the sound specimen corresponds to the sound-data stream (e.g., one or more audio frames) associated with a spotted wake word or command keyword in the keyword portion 280 a of FIG. 2A. As illustrated, the example sound specimen comprises sound detected in an NMD's environment (i) immediately before a wake or command word was spoken, which may be referred to as a pre-roll portion (between times to and t₁), (ii) while a wake or command word was spoken, which may be referred to as a wake-meter portion (between times t₁ and t₂), and/or (iii) after the wake or command word was spoken, which may be referred to as a post-roll portion (between times t₂ and t₃). Other sound specimens are also possible. In various implementations, aspects of the sound specimen can be evaluated according to an acoustic model which aims to map mels/spectral features to phonemes in a given language model for further processing. For example, automatic speech recognition (ASR) may include such mapping for keyword detection. Wake-word detection engines, by contrast, may be precisely tuned to identify a specific wake-word, and a downstream action of invoking a VAS (e.g., by targeting only nonce words in the voice input processed by the playback device).

ASR for command keyword detection may be tuned to accommodate a wide range of keywords (e.g., 5, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 keywords). Command-keyword detection, in contrast to wake-word detection, may involve feeding ASR output to an onboard, local NLU which together with the ASR determine when command-keyword events have occurred. In some implementations described below, the local NLU may determine an intent based on one or more other keywords in the ASR output produced by a particular voice input. In these or other implementations, a playback device may act on a detected command-keyword event only when the playback devices determines that certain conditions have been met, such as environmental conditions (e.g., low background noise). In some embodiments, multiple devices within a single media playback system may have different onboard, local ASRs and/or NLUs, for example supporting different libraries of keywords.

b. Example Playback Device Configurations

FIGS. 3A-3E show example configurations of playback devices. Referring first to FIG. 3A, in some example instances, a single playback device may belong to a zone. For example, the playback device 102 c (FIG. 1A) on the Patio may belong to Zone A. In some implementations described below, multiple playback devices may be “bonded” to form a “bonded pair,” which together form a single zone. For example, the playback device 102 f (FIG. 1A) named “Bed 1” in FIG. 3A may be bonded to the playback device 102 g (FIG. 1A) named “Bed 2” in FIG. 3A to form Zone B. Bonded playback devices may have different playback responsibilities (e.g., channel responsibilities). In another implementation described below, multiple playback devices may be merged to form a single zone. For example, the playback device 102 d named “Bookcase” may be merged with the playback device 102 m named “Living Room” to form a single Zone C. The merged playback devices 102 d and 102 m may not be specifically assigned different playback responsibilities. That is, the merged playback devices 102 d and 102 m may, aside from playing audio content in synchrony, each play audio content as they would if they were not merged.

For purposes of control, each zone in the MPS 100 may be represented as a single user interface (“UI”) entity. For example, as displayed by the controller devices 104, Zone A may be provided as a single entity named “Portable,” Zone B may be provided as a single entity named “Stereo,” and Zone C may be provided as a single entity named “Living Room.”

In various embodiments, a zone may take on the name of one of the playback devices belonging to the zone. For example, Zone C may take on the name of the Living Room device 102 m (as shown). In another example, Zone C may instead take on the name of the Bookcase device 102 d. In a further example, Zone C may take on a name that is some combination of the Bookcase device 102 d and Living Room device 102 m. The name that is chosen may be selected by a user via inputs at a controller device 104. In some embodiments, a zone may be given a name that is different than the device(s) belonging to the zone. For example, Zone B in FIG. 3A is named “Stereo” but none of the devices in Zone B have this name. In one aspect, Zone B is a single UI entity representing a single device named “Stereo,” composed of constituent devices “Bed 1” and “Bed 2.” In one implementation, the Bed 1 device may be playback device 102 f in the master bedroom 101 b (FIG. 1A) and the Bed 2 device may be the playback device 102 g also in the master bedroom 101 h (FIG. 1A).

As noted above, playback devices that are bonded may have different playback responsibilities, such as playback responsibilities for certain audio channels. For example, as shown in FIG. 3B, the Bed 1 and Bed 2 devices 102 f and 102 g may be bonded so as to produce or enhance a stereo effect of audio content. In this example, the Bed 1 playback device 102 f may be configured to play a left channel audio component, while the Bed 2 playback device 102 g may be configured to play a right channel audio component. In some implementations, such stereo bonding may be referred to as “pairing.”

Additionally, playback devices that are configured to be bonded may have additional and/or different respective speaker drivers. As shown in FIG. 3C, the playback device 102 b named “Front” may be bonded with the playback device 102 k named “SUB.” The Front device 102 b may render a range of mid to high frequencies, and the SUB device 102 k may render low frequencies as, for example, a subwoofer. When unbonded, the Front device 102 b may be configured to render a full range of frequencies. As another example, FIG. 3D shows the Front and SUB devices 102 b and 102 k further bonded with Right and Left playback devices 102 a and 102 j, respectively. In some implementations, the Right and Left devices 102 a and 102 j may form surround or “satellite” channels of a home theater system. The bonded playback devices 102 a, 102 b, 102 j, and 102 k may form a single Zone D (FIG. 3A).

In some implementations, playback devices may also be “merged.” In contrast to certain bonded playback devices, playback devices that are merged may not have assigned playback responsibilities, but may each render the full range of audio content that each respective playback device is capable of. Nevertheless, merged devices may be represented as a single UI entity (i.e., a zone, as discussed above). For instance, FIG. 3E shows the playback devices 102 d and 102 m in the Living Room merged, which would result in these devices being represented by the single UI entity of Zone C. In one embodiment, the playback devices 102 d and 102 m may playback audio in synchrony, during which each outputs the full range of audio content that each respective playback device 102 d and 102 m is capable of rendering.

In some embodiments, a stand-alone NMD may be in a zone by itself. For example, the NMD 103 h from FIG. 1A is named “Closet” and forms Zone I in FIG. 3A. An NMD may also be bonded or merged with another device so as to form a zone. For example, the NMD 103 f named “Island” may be bonded with the playback device 102 i Kitchen, which together form Zone F, which is also named “Kitchen.” Additional details regarding assigning NMDs and playback devices as designated or default devices may be found, for example, in previously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749. In some embodiments, a stand-alone NMD may not be assigned to a zone.

Zones of individual, bonded, and/or merged devices may be arranged to form a set of playback devices that playback audio in synchrony. Such a set of playback devices may be referred to as a “group,” “zone group,” “synchrony group,” or “playback group.” In response to inputs provided via a controller device 104, playback devices may be dynamically grouped and ungrouped to form new or different groups that synchronously play back audio content. For example, referring to FIG. 3A, Zone A may be grouped with Zone B to form a zone group that includes the playback devices of the two zones. As another example, Zone A may be grouped with one or more other Zones C-I. The Zones A-I may be grouped and ungrouped in numerous ways. For example, three, four, five, or more (e.g., all) of the Zones A-I may be grouped. When grouped, the zones of individual and/or bonded playback devices may play back audio in synchrony with one another, as described in previously referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,395. Grouped and bonded devices are example types of associations between portable and stationary playback devices that may be caused in response to a trigger event, as discussed above and described in greater detail below.

In various implementations, the zones in an environment may be assigned a particular name, which may be the default name of a zone within a zone group or a combination of the names of the zones within a zone group, such as “Dining Room+Kitchen,” as shown in FIG. 3A. In some embodiments, a zone group may be given a unique name selected by a user, such as “Nick's Room,” as also shown in FIG. 3A. The name “Nick's Room” may be a name chosen by a user over a prior name for the zone group, such as the room name “Master Bedroom.”

Referring back to FIG. 2A, certain data may be stored in the memory 213 as one or more state variables that are periodically updated and used to describe the state of a playback zone, the playback device(s), and/or a zone group associated therewith. The memory 213 may also include the data associated with the state of the other devices of the MPS 100, which may be shared from time to time among the devices so that one or more of the devices have the most recent data associated with the system.

In some embodiments, the memory 213 of the playback device 102 may store instances of various variable types associated with the states. Variables instances may be stored with identifiers (e.g., tags) corresponding to type. For example, certain identifiers may be a first type “a1” to identify playback device(s) of a zone, a second type “b1” to identify playback device(s) that may be bonded in the zone, and a third type “c1” to identify a zone group to which the zone may belong. As a related example, in FIG. 1A, identifiers associated with the Patio may indicate that the Patio is the only playback device of a particular zone and not in a zone group. Identifiers associated with the Living Room may indicate that the Living Room is not grouped with other zones but includes bonded playback devices 102 a, 102 b, 102 j, and 102 k. Identifiers associated with the Dining Room may indicate that the Dining Room is part of Dining Room+Kitchen group and that devices 103 f and 102 i are bonded. Identifiers associated with the Kitchen may indicate the same or similar information by virtue of the Kitchen being part of the Dining Room+Kitchen zone group. Other example zone variables and identifiers are described below.

In yet another example, the MPS 100 may include variables or identifiers representing other associations of zones and zone groups, such as identifiers associated with Areas, as shown in FIG. 3A. An Area may involve a cluster of zone groups and/or zones not within a zone group. For instance, FIG. 3A shows a first area named “First Area” and a second area named “Second Area.” The First Area includes zones and zone groups of the Patio, Den, Dining Room, Kitchen, and Bathroom. The Second Area includes zones and zone groups of the Bathroom, Nick's Room, Bedroom, and Living Room. In one aspect, an Area may be used to invoke a cluster of zone groups and/or zones that share one or more zones and/or zone groups of another cluster. In this respect, such an Area differs from a zone group, which does not share a zone with another zone group. Further examples of techniques for implementing Areas may be found, for example, in U.S. application Ser. No. 15/682,506 filed Aug. 21, 2017 and titled “Room Association Based on Name,” and U.S. Pat. No. 8,483,853 filed Sep. 11, 2007, and titled “Controlling and manipulating groupings in a multi-zone media system.” Each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In some embodiments, the MPS 100 may not implement Areas, in which case the system may not store variables associated with Areas.

The memory 213 may be further configured to store other data. Such data may pertain to audio sources accessible by the playback device 102 or a playback queue that the playback device (or some other playback device(s)) may be associated with. In embodiments described below, the memory 213 is configured to store a set of command data for selecting a particular VAS when processing voice inputs. During operation, one or more playback zones in the environment of FIG. 1A may each be playing different audio content. For instance, the user may be grilling in the Patio zone and listening to hip hop music being played by the playback device 102 c, while another user may be preparing food in the Kitchen zone and listening to classical music being played by the playback device 102 i. In another example, a playback zone may play the same audio content in synchrony with another playback zone.

For instance, the user may be in the Office zone where the playback device 102 n is playing the same hip-hop music that is being playing by playback device 102 c in the Patio zone. In such a case, playback devices 102 c and 102 n may be playing the hip-hop in synchrony such that the user may seamlessly (or at least substantially seamlessly) enjoy the audio content that is being played out-loud while moving between different playback zones. Synchronization among playback zones may be achieved in a manner similar to that of synchronization among playback devices, as described in previously referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,395.

As suggested above, the zone configurations of the MPS 100 may be dynamically modified. As such, the MPS 100 may support numerous configurations. For example, if a user physically moves one or more playback devices to or from a zone, the MPS 100 may be reconfigured to accommodate the change(s). For instance, if the user physically moves the playback device 102 c from the Patio zone to the Office zone, the Office zone may now include both the playback devices 102 c and 102 n. In some cases, the user may pair or group the moved playback device 102 c with the Office zone and/or rename the players in the Office zone using, for example, one of the controller devices 104 and/or voice input. As another example, if one or more playback devices 102 are moved to a particular space in the home environment that is not already a playback zone, the moved playback device(s) may be renamed or associated with a playback zone for the particular space.

Further, different playback zones of the MPS 100 may be dynamically combined into zone groups or split up into individual playback zones. For example, the Dining Room zone and the Kitchen zone may be combined into a zone group for a dinner party such that playback devices 102 i and 102 l may render audio content in synchrony. As another example, bonded playback devices in the Den zone may be split into (i) a television zone and (ii) a separate listening zone. The television zone may include the Front playback device 102 b. The listening zone may include the Right, Left, and SUB playback devices 102 a, 102 j, and 102 k, which may be grouped, paired, or merged, as described above. Splitting the Den zone in such a manner may allow one user to listen to music in the listening zone in one area of the living room space, and another user to watch the television in another area of the living room space. In a related example, a user may utilize either of the NMD 103 a or 103 b (FIG. 1B) to control the Den zone before it is separated into the television zone and the listening zone. Once separated, the listening zone may be controlled, for example, by a user in the vicinity of the NMD 103 a, and the television zone may be controlled, for example, by a user in the vicinity of the NMD 103 b. As described above, however, any of the NMDs 103 may be configured to control the various playback and other devices of the MPS 100.

c. Example Controller Devices

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating certain aspects of a selected one of the controller devices 104 of the MPS 100 of FIG. 1A. Such controller devices may also be referred to herein as a “control device” or “controller.” The controller device shown in FIG. 4 may include components that are generally similar to certain components of the network devices described above, such as a processor 412, memory 413 storing program software 414, at least one network interface 424, and one or more microphones 422. In one example, a controller device may be a dedicated controller for the MPS 100. In another example, a controller device may be a network device on which media playback system controller application software may be installed, such as for example, an iPhone™, iPad™ or any other smart phone, tablet, or network device (e.g., a networked computer such as a PC or Mac™).

The memory 413 of the controller device 104 may be configured to store controller application software and other data associated with the MPS 100 and/or a user of the system 100. The memory 413 may be loaded with instructions in software 414 that are executable by the processor 412 to achieve certain functions, such as facilitating user access, control, and/or configuration of the MPS 100. The controller device 104 is configured to communicate with other network devices via the network interface 424, which may take the form of a wireless interface, as described above.

In one example, system information (e.g., such as a state variable) may be communicated between the controller device 104 and other devices via the network interface 424. For instance, the controller device 104 may receive playback zone and zone group configurations in the MPS 100 from a playback device, an NMD, or another network device. Likewise, the controller device 104 may transmit such system information to a playback device or another network device via the network interface 424. In some cases, the other network device may be another controller device.

The controller device 104 may also communicate playback device control commands, such as volume control and audio playback control, to a playback device via the network interface 424. As suggested above, changes to configurations of the MPS 100 may also be performed by a user using the controller device 104. The configuration changes may include adding/removing one or more playback devices to/from a zone, adding/removing one or more zones to/from a zone group, forming a bonded or merged player, separating one or more playback devices from a bonded or merged player, among others.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the controller device 104 also includes a user interface 440 that is generally configured to facilitate user access and control of the MPS 100. The user interface 440 may include a touch-screen display or other physical interface configured to provide various graphical controller interfaces, such as the controller interfaces 540 a and 540 b shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. Referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B together, the controller interfaces 540 a and 540 b includes a playback control region 542, a playback zone region 543, a playback status region 544, a playback queue region 546, and a sources region 548. The user interface as shown is just one example of an interface that may be provided on a network device, such as the controller device shown in FIG. 4 , and accessed by users to control a media playback system, such as the MPS 100. Other user interfaces of varying formats, styles, and interactive sequences may alternatively be implemented on one or more network devices to provide comparable control access to a media playback system.

The playback control region 542 (FIG. 5A) may include selectable icons (e.g., by way of touch or by using a cursor) that, when selected, cause playback devices in a selected playback zone or zone group to play or pause, fast forward, rewind, skip to next, skip to previous, enter/exit shuffle mode, enter/exit repeat mode, enter/exit cross fade mode, etc. The playback control region 542 may also include selectable icons that, when selected, modify equalization settings and/or playback volume, among other possibilities.

The playback zone region 543 (FIG. 5B) may include representations of playback zones within the MPS 100. The playback zones regions 543 may also include a representation of zone groups, such as the Dining Room+Kitchen zone group, as shown.

In some embodiments, the graphical representations of playback zones may be selectable to bring up additional selectable icons to manage or configure the playback zones in the MPS 100, such as a creation of bonded zones, creation of zone groups, separation of zone groups, and renaming of zone groups, among other possibilities.

For example, as shown, a “group” icon may be provided within each of the graphical representations of playback zones. The “group” icon provided within a graphical representation of a particular zone may be selectable to bring up options to select one or more other zones in the MPS 100 to be grouped with the particular zone. Once grouped, playback devices in the zones that have been grouped with the particular zone will be configured to play audio content in synchrony with the playback device(s) in the particular zone. Analogously, a “group” icon may be provided within a graphical representation of a zone group. In this case, the “group” icon may be selectable to bring up options to deselect one or more zones in the zone group to be removed from the zone group. Other interactions and implementations for grouping and ungrouping zones via a user interface are also possible. The representations of playback zones in the playback zone region 543 (FIG. 5B) may be dynamically updated as playback zone or zone group configurations are modified.

The playback status region 544 (FIG. 5A) may include graphical representations of audio content that is presently being played, previously played, or scheduled to play next in the selected playback zone or zone group. The selected playback zone or zone group may be visually distinguished on a controller interface, such as within the playback zone region 543 and/or the playback status region 544. The graphical representations may include track title, artist name, album name, album year, track length, and/or other relevant information that may be useful for the user to know when controlling the MPS 100 via a controller interface.

The playback queue region 546 may include graphical representations of audio content in a playback queue associated with the selected playback zone or zone group. In some embodiments, each playback zone or zone group may be associated with a playback queue comprising information corresponding to zero or more audio items for playback by the playback zone or zone group. For instance, each audio item in the playback queue may comprise a uniform resource identifier (URI), a uniform resource locator (URL), or some other identifier that may be used by a playback device in the playback zone or zone group to find and/or retrieve the audio item from a local audio content source or a networked audio content source, which may then be played back by the playback device.

In one example, a playlist may be added to a playback queue, in which case information corresponding to each audio item in the playlist may be added to the playback queue. In another example, audio items in a playback queue may be saved as a playlist. In a further example, a playback queue may be empty, or populated but “not in use” when the playback zone or zone group is playing continuously streamed audio content, such as Internet radio that may continue to play until otherwise stopped, rather than discrete audio items that have playback durations. In an alternative embodiment, a playback queue can include Internet radio and/or other streaming audio content items and be “in use” when the playback zone or zone group is playing those items. Other examples are also possible.

When playback zones or zone groups are “grouped” or “ungrouped,” playback queues associated with the affected playback zones or zone groups may be cleared or re-associated. For example, if a first playback zone including a first playback queue is grouped with a second playback zone including a second playback queue, the established zone group may have an associated playback queue that is initially empty, that contains audio items from the first playback queue (such as if the second playback zone was added to the first playback zone), that contains audio items from the second playback queue (such as if the first playback zone was added to the second playback zone), or a combination of audio items from both the first and second playback queues. Subsequently, if the established zone group is ungrouped, the resulting first playback zone may be re-associated with the previous first playback queue or may be associated with a new playback queue that is empty or contains audio items from the playback queue associated with the established zone group before the established zone group was ungrouped. Similarly, the resulting second playback zone may be re-associated with the previous second playback queue or may be associated with a new playback queue that is empty or contains audio items from the playback queue associated with the established zone group before the established zone group was ungrouped. Other examples are also possible.

With reference still to FIGS. 5A and 5B, the graphical representations of audio content in the playback queue region 646 (FIG. 5A) may include track titles, artist names, track lengths, and/or other relevant information associated with the audio content in the playback queue. In one example, graphical representations of audio content may be selectable to bring up additional selectable icons to manage and/or manipulate the playback queue and/or audio content represented in the playback queue. For instance, a represented audio content may be removed from the playback queue, moved to a different position within the playback queue, or selected to be played immediately, or after any currently playing audio content, among other possibilities. A playback queue associated with a playback zone or zone group may be stored in a memory on one or more playback devices in the playback zone or zone group, on a playback device that is not in the playback zone or zone group, and/or some other designated device. Playback of such a playback queue may involve one or more playback devices playing back media items of the queue, perhaps in sequential or random order.

The sources region 548 may include graphical representations of selectable audio content sources and/or selectable voice assistants associated with a corresponding VAS. The VASes may be selectively assigned. In some examples, multiple VASes, such as AMAZON's Alexa, MICROSOFT's Cortana, etc., may be invokable by the same NMD. In some embodiments, a user may assign a VAS exclusively to one or more NMDs. For example, a user may assign a first VAS to one or both of the playback devices 102 a and 102 b in the Living Room shown in FIG. 1A, and a second VAS to the NMD 103 f in the Kitchen. Other examples are possible.

d. Example Audio Content Sources

The audio sources in the sources region 548 may be audio content sources from which audio content may be retrieved and played by the selected playback zone or zone group. One or more playback devices in a zone or zone group may be configured to retrieve for playback audio content (e.g., according to a corresponding URI or URL for the audio content) from a variety of available audio content sources. In one example, audio content may be retrieved by a playback device directly from a corresponding audio content source (e.g., via a line-in connection). In another example, audio content may be provided to a playback device over a network via one or more other playback devices or network devices. As described in greater detail below, in some embodiments, audio content may be provided by one or more media content services.

Example audio content sources may include a memory of one or more playback devices in a media playback system such as the MPS 100 of FIG. 1 , local music libraries on one or more network devices (e.g., a controller device, a network-enabled personal computer, or a networked-attached storage (“NAS”)), streaming audio services providing audio content via the Internet (e.g., cloud-based music services), or audio sources connected to the media playback system via a line-in input connection on a playback device or network device, among other possibilities.

In some embodiments, audio content sources may be added or removed from a media playback system such as the MPS 100 of FIG. 1A. In one example, an indexing of audio items may be performed whenever one or more audio content sources are added, removed, or updated. Indexing of audio items may involve scanning for identifiable audio items in all folders/directories shared over a network accessible by playback devices in the media playback system and generating or updating an audio content database comprising metadata (e.g., title, artist, album, track length, among others) and other associated information, such as a URI or URL for each identifiable audio item found. Other examples for managing and maintaining audio content sources may also be possible.

FIG. 6 is a message flow diagram illustrating data exchanges between devices of the MPS 100. At step 650 a, the MPS 100 receives an indication of selected media content (e.g., one or more songs, albums, playlists, podcasts, videos, stations) via the control device 104. The selected media content can comprise, for example, media items stored locally on or more devices (e.g., the audio source 105 of FIG. 1C) connected to the media playback system and/or media items stored on one or more media service servers (one or more of the remote computing devices 106 of FIG. 1B). In response to receiving the indication of the selected media content, the control device 104 transmits a message 651 a to the playback device 102 (FIGS. 1A-1C) to add the selected media content to a playback queue on the playback device 102.

At step 650 b, the playback device 102 receives the message 651 a and adds the selected media content to the playback queue for play back.

At step 650 c, the control device 104 receives input corresponding to a command to play back the selected media content. In response to receiving the input corresponding to the command to play back the selected media content, the control device 104 transmits a message 651 b to the playback device 102 causing the playback device 102 to play back the selected media content. In response to receiving the message 651 b, the playback device 102 transmits a message 651 c to the computing device 106 requesting the selected media content. The computing device 106, in response to receiving the message 651 c, transmits a message 651 d comprising data (e.g., audio data, video data, a URL, a URI) corresponding to the requested media content.

At step 650 d, the playback device 102 receives the message 651 d with the data corresponding to the requested media content and plays back the associated media content.

At step 650 e, the playback device 102 optionally causes one or more other devices to play back the selected media content. In one example, the playback device 102 is one of a bonded zone of two or more players (FIG. 1M). The playback device 102 can receive the selected media content and transmit all or a portion of the media content to other devices in the bonded zone. In another example, the playback device 102 is a coordinator of a group and is configured to transmit and receive timing information from one or more other devices in the group. The other one or more devices in the group can receive the selected media content from the computing device 106, and begin playback of the selected media content in response to a message from the playback device 102 such that all of the devices in the group play back the selected media content in synchrony.

III. Example Command-Keyword Eventing

FIG. 7A is functional block diagram showing aspects of an NMD 703 configured in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure. The NMD 703 may be generally similar to the NMD 103 and include similar components. As described in more detail below, the NMD 703 (FIG. 7A) is configured to handle certain voice inputs locally, without necessarily transmitting data representing the voice input to a voice assistant service. However, the NMD 703 is also configured to process other voice inputs using a voice assistant service.

Referring to FIG. 7A, the NMD 703 includes voice capture components (“VCC”) 760, a VAS wake-word engine 770 a, and a voice extractor 773. The VAS wake-word engine 770 a and the voice extractor 773 are operably coupled to the VCC 760. The NMD 703 further comprises a command-keyword engine 771 a operably coupled to the VCC 760.

The NMD 703 further includes microphones 720 and the at least one network interface 724 as described above and may also include other components, such as audio amplifiers, a user interface, etc., which are not shown in FIG. 7A for purposes of clarity. The microphones 720 of the NMD 703 are configured to provide detected sound, S_(D), from the environment of the NMD 703 to the VCC 760. The detected sound S_(D) may take the form of one or more analog or digital signals. In example implementations, the detected sound S_(D) may be composed of a plurality signals associated with respective channels 762 that are fed to the VCC 760.

Each channel 762 may correspond to a particular microphone 720. For example, an NMD having six microphones may have six corresponding channels. Each channel of the detected sound S_(D) may bear certain similarities to the other channels but may differ in certain regards, which may be due to the position of the given channel's corresponding microphone relative to the microphones of other channels. For example, one or more of the channels of the detected sound S_(D) may have a greater signal to noise ratio (“SNR”) of speech to background noise than other channels.

As further shown in FIG. 7A, the VCC 760 includes an AEC 763, a spatial processor 764, and one or more buffers 768. In operation, the AEC 763 receives the detected sound S_(D) and filters or otherwise processes the sound to suppress echoes and/or to otherwise improve the quality of the detected sound S_(D). That processed sound may then be passed to the spatial processor 764.

The spatial processor 764 is typically configured to analyze the detected sound S_(D) and identify certain characteristics, such as a sound's amplitude (e.g., decibel level), frequency spectrum, directionality, etc. In one respect, the spatial processor 764 may help filter or suppress ambient noise in the detected sound S_(D) from potential user speech based on similarities and differences in the constituent channels 762 of the detected sound S_(D), as discussed above. As one possibility, the spatial processor 764 may monitor metrics that distinguish speech from other sounds. Such metrics can include, for example, energy within the speech band relative to background noise and entropy within the speech band—a measure of spectral structure—which is typically lower in speech than in most common background noise. In some implementations, the spatial processor 764 may be configured to determine a speech presence probability, examples of such functionality are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/984,073, filed May 18, 2018, titled “Linear Filtering for Noise-Suppressed Speech Detection,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In operation, the one or more buffers 768—one or more of which may be part of or separate from the memory 213 (FIG. 2A)— capture data corresponding to the detected sound S_(D). More specifically, the one or more buffers 768 capture detected-sound data that was processed by the upstream AEC 764 and spatial processor 764.

The network interface 724 may then provide this information to a remote server that may be associated with the MPS 100. In one aspect, the information stored in the additional buffer 769 does not reveal the content of any speech but instead is indicative of certain unique features of the detected sound itself. In a related aspect, the information may be communicated between computing devices, such as the various computing devices of the MPS 100, without necessarily implicating privacy concerns. In practice, the MPS 100 can use this information to adapt and fine tune voice processing algorithms, including sensitivity tuning as discussed below. In some implementations the additional buffer may comprise or include functionality similar to lookback buffers disclosed, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/989,715, filed May 25, 2018, titled “Determining and Adapting to Changes in Microphone Performance of Playback Devices”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/141,875, filed Sep. 25, 2018, titled “Voice Detection Optimization Based on Selected Voice Assistant Service”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/138,111, filed Sep. 21, 2018, titled “Voice Detection Optimization Using Sound Metadata,” which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

In any event, the detected-sound data forms a digital representation (i.e., sound-data stream), S_(DS), of the sound detected by the microphones 720. In practice, the sound-data stream S_(DS) may take a variety of forms. As one possibility, the sound-data stream S_(DS) may be composed of frames, each of which may include one or more sound samples. The frames may be streamed (i.e., read out) from the one or more buffers 768 for further processing by downstream components, such as the VAS wake-word engines 770 and the voice extractor 773 of the NMD 703.

In some implementations, at least one buffer 768 captures detected-sound data utilizing a sliding window approach in which a given amount (i.e., a given window) of the most recently captured detected-sound data is retained in the at least one buffer 768 while older detected sound data is overwritten when it falls outside of the window. For example, at least one buffer 768 may temporarily retain 20 frames of a sound specimen at given time, discard the oldest frame after an expiration time, and then capture a new frame, which is added to the 19 prior frames of the sound specimen.

In practice, when the sound-data stream S_(DS) is composed of frames, the frames may take a variety of forms having a variety of characteristics. As one possibility, the frames may take the form of audio frames that have a certain resolution (e.g., 16 bits of resolution), which may be based on a sampling rate (e.g., 44,100 Hz). Additionally, or alternatively, the frames may include information corresponding to a given sound specimen that the frames define, such as metadata that indicates frequency response, power input level, SNR, microphone channel identification, and/or other information of the given sound specimen, among other examples. Thus, in some embodiments, a frame may include a portion of sound (e.g., one or more samples of a given sound specimen) and metadata regarding the portion of sound. In other embodiments, a frame may only include a portion of sound (e.g., one or more samples of a given sound specimen) or metadata regarding a portion of sound.

In any case, downstream components of the NMD 703 may process the sound-data stream S_(DS). For instance, the VAS wake-word engines 770 are configured to apply one or more identification algorithms to the sound-data stream S_(DS) (e.g., streamed sound frames) to spot potential wake words in the detected-sound S_(D). This process may be referred to as automatic speech recognition. The VAS wake-word engine 770 a and command-keyword engine 771 a apply different identification algorithms corresponding to their respective wake words, and further generate different events based on detecting a wake word in the detected sound S_(D).

Example wake word detection algorithms accept audio as input and provide an indication of whether a wake word is present in the audio. Many first- and third-party wake word detection algorithms are known and commercially available. For instance, operators of a voice service may make their algorithm available for use in third-party devices. Alternatively, an algorithm may be trained to detect certain wake-words.

For instance, when the VAS wake-word engine 770 a detects a potential VAS wake word, the VAS work-word engine 770 a provides an indication of a “VAS wake-word event” (also referred to as a “VAS wake-word trigger”). In the illustrated example of FIG. 7A, the VAS wake word engine 770 a outputs a signal, S_(VW), that indicates the occurrence of a VAS wake-word event to the voice extractor 773.

In multi-VAS implementations, the NMD 703 may include a VAS selector 774 (shown in dashed lines) that is generally configured to direct extraction by the voice extractor 773 and transmission of the sound-data stream S_(DS) to the appropriate VAS when a given wake-word is identified by a particular wake-word engine (and a corresponding wake-word trigger), such as the VAS wake-word engine 770 a and at least one additional VAS wake-word engine 770 b (shown in dashed lines). In such implementations, the NMD 703 may include multiple, different VAS wake word engines and/or voice extractors, each supported by a respective VAS.

Similar to the discussion above, each VAS wake-word engine 770 may be configured to receive as input the sound-data stream S_(DS) from the one or more buffers 768 and apply identification algorithms to cause a wake-word trigger for the appropriate VAS. Thus, as one example, the VAS wake-word engine 770 a may be configured to identify the wake word “Alexa” and cause the NMD 703 to invoke the AMAZON VAS when “Alexa” is spotted. As another example, the wake-word engine 770 b may be configured to identify the wake word “Ok, Google” and cause the NMD 520 to invoke the GOOGLE VAS when “Ok, Google” is spotted. In single-VAS implementations, the VAS selector 774 may be omitted.

In response to the VAS wake-word event (e.g., in response to the signal S_(VW) indicating the wake-word event), the voice extractor 773 is configured to receive and format (e.g., packetize) the sound-data stream S_(DS). For instance, the voice extractor 773 packetizes the frames of the sound-data stream S_(DS) into messages. The voice extractor 773 transmits or streams these messages, M_(V), that may contain voice input in real time or near real time to a remote VAS via the network interface 724.

The VAS is configured to process the sound-data stream S_(DS) contained in the messages M_(V) sent from the NMD 703. More specifically, the NMD 703 is configured to identify a voice input 780 based on the sound-data stream S_(DS). As described in connection with FIG. 2C, the voice input 780 may include a keyword portion and an utterance portion. The keyword portion corresponds to detected sound that caused a wake-word event, or leads to a command-keyword event when one or more certain conditions, such as certain playback conditions, are met. For instance, when the voice input 780 includes a VAS wake word, the keyword portion corresponds to detected sound that caused the wake-word engine 770 a to output the wake-word event signal SVW to the voice extractor 773. The utterance portion in this case corresponds to detected sound that potentially comprises a user request following the keyword portion.

When a VAS wake-word event occurs, the VAS may first process the keyword portion within the sound data stream SDS to verify the presence of a VAS wake word. In some instances, the VAS may determine that the keyword portion comprises a false wake word (e.g., the word “Election” when the word “Alexa” is the target VAS wake word). In such an occurrence, the VAS may send a response to the NMD 703 with an instruction for the NMD 703 to cease extraction of sound data, which causes the voice extractor 773 to cease further streaming of the detected-sound data to the VAS. The VAS wake-word engine 770 a may resume or continue monitoring sound specimens until it spots another potential VAS wake word, leading to another VAS wake-word event. In some implementations, the VAS does not process or receive the keyword portion but instead processes only the utterance portion.

In any case, the VAS processes the utterance portion to identify the presence of any words in the detected-sound data and to determine an underlying intent from these words. The words may correspond to one or more commands, as well as certain keywords. The keyword may be, for example, a word in the voice input identifying a particular device or group in the MPS 100. For instance, in the illustrated example, the keyword may be one or more words identifying one or more zones in which the music is to be played, such as the Living Room and the Dining Room (FIG. 1A).

To determine the intent of the words, the VAS is typically in communication with one or more databases associated with the VAS (not shown) and/or one or more databases (not shown) of the MPS 100. Such databases may store various user data, analytics, catalogs, and other information for natural language processing and/or other processing. In some implementations, such databases may be updated for adaptive learning and feedback for a neural network based on voice-input processing. In some cases, the utterance portion may include additional information, such as detected pauses (e.g., periods of non-speech) between words spoken by a user, as shown in FIG. 2C. The pauses may demarcate the locations of separate commands, keywords, or other information spoke by the user within the utterance portion.

After processing the voice input, the VAS may send a response to the MPS 100 with an instruction to perform one or more actions based on an intent it determined from the voice input. For example, based on the voice input, the VAS may direct the MPS 100 to initiate playback on one or more of the playback devices 102, control one or more of these playback devices 102 (e.g., raise/lower volume, group/ungroup devices, etc.), or turn on/off certain smart devices, among other actions. After receiving the response from the VAS, the wake-word engine 770 a of the NMD 703 may resume or continue to monitor the sound-data stream S_(DS1) until it spots another potential wake-word, as discussed above.

In general, the one or more identification algorithms that a particular VAS wake-word engine, such as the VAS wake-word engine 770 a, applies are configured to analyze certain characteristics of the detected sound stream S_(DS) and compare those characteristics to corresponding characteristics of the particular VAS wake-word engine's one or more particular VAS wake words. For example, the wake-word engine 770 a may apply one or more identification algorithms to spot temporal and spectral characteristics in the detected sound stream S_(DS) that match the temporal and spectral characteristics of the engine's one or more wake words, and thereby determine that the detected sound S_(D) comprises a voice input including a particular VAS wake word.

In some implementations, the one or more identification algorithms may be third-party identification algorithms (i.e., developed by a company other than the company that provides the NMD 703). For instance, operators of a voice service (e.g., AMAZON) may make their respective algorithms (e.g., identification algorithms corresponding to AMAZON's ALEXA) available for use in third-party devices (e.g., the NMDs 103), which are then trained to identify one or more wake words for the particular voice assistant service. Additionally, or alternatively, the one or more identification algorithms may be first-party identification algorithms that are developed and trained to identify certain wake words that are not necessarily particular to a given voice service. Other possibilities also exist.

As noted above, the NMD 703 also includes a command-keyword engine 771 a in parallel with the VAS wake-word engine 770 a. Like the VAS wake-word engine 770 a, the command-keyword engine 771 a may apply one or more identification algorithms corresponding to one or more wake words. A “command-keyword event” is generated when a particular command keyword is identified in the detected sound S_(D). In contrast to the nonce words typically as utilized as VAS wake words, command keywords function as both the activation word and the command itself. For instance, example command keywords may correspond to playback commands (e.g., “play,” “pause,” “skip,” etc.) as well as control commands (“turn on”), among other examples. Under appropriate conditions, based on detecting one of these command keywords, the NMD 703 performs the corresponding command.

The command-keyword engine 771 a can employ an automatic speech recognizer 772. The ASR 772 is configured to output phonetic or phonemic representations, such as text corresponding to words, based on sound in the sound-data stream S_(DS) to text. For instance, the ASR 772 may transcribe spoken words represented in the sound-data stream S_(DS) to one or more strings representing the voice input 780 as text. The command-keyword engine 771 can feed ASR output (labeled as S_(ASR)) to a local natural language unit (NLU) 779 that identifies particular keywords as being command keywords for invoking command-keyword events, as described below.

As noted above, in some example implementations, the NMD 703 is configured to perform natural language processing, which may be carried out using an onboard natural language understanding processor, referred to herein as a natural language unit (NLU) 779. The local NLU 779 is configured to analyze text output of the ASR 772 of the command-keyword engine 771 a to spot (i.e., detect or identify) keywords in the voice input 780. In FIG. 7A, this output is illustrated as the signal S_(ASR). The local NLU 779 includes a library of keywords (i.e., words and phrases) corresponding to respective commands and/or parameters.

In one aspect, the library of the local NLU 779 includes command keywords. When the local NLU 779 identifies a command keyword in the signal S_(ASR), the command-keyword engine 771 a generates a command-keyword event and performs a command corresponding to the command keyword in the signal S_(ASR), assuming that one or more conditions corresponding to that command keyword are satisfied.

Further, the library of the local NLU 779 may also include keywords corresponding to parameters. The local NLU 779 may then determine an underlying intent from the matched keywords in the voice input 780. For instance, if the local NLU matches the keywords “David Bowie” and “kitchen” in combination with a play command, the local NLU 779 may determine an intent of playing David Bowie in the Kitchen 101 h on the playback device 102 i. In contrast to a processing of the voice input 780 by a cloud-based VAS, local processing of the voice input 780 by the local NLU 779 may be relatively less sophisticated, as the NLU 779 does not have access to the relatively greater processing capabilities and larger voice databases that a VAS generally has access to. As described in greater detail below, in some implementations multiple NMDs of a single media playback system may be equipped with different libraries of their respective local NLUs 779. Voice input captured via a first NMD may be processed for detection of keywords stored in any one of the libraries of the various NMDs of the media playback system. As a result, the presence of multiple NMDs can increase the total available keywords for local detection. In various embodiments, the libraries of the NMDs can be identical, partially overlapping, or completely non-overlapping.

In some examples, the local NLU 779 may determine an intent with one or more slots, which correspond to respective keywords. For instance, referring back to the play David Bowie in the Kitchen example, when processing the voice input, the local NLU 779 may determine that an intent is to play music (e.g., intent=playMusic), while a first slot includes David Bowie as target content (e.g., slot1=DavidBowie) and a second slot includes the Kitchen 101 h as the target playback device (e.g., slot2=kitchen). Here, the intent (to “playMusic”) is based on the command keyword and the slots are parameters modifying the intent to a particular target content and playback device.

Within examples, the command-keyword engine 771 a outputs a signal that indicates the occurrence of a command-keyword event to the local NLU 779. In response to the command-keyword event (e.g., in response to the signal indicating the command-keyword event), the local NLU 779 is configured to receive and process the signal S_(ASR). In particular, the local NLU 779 looks at the words within the signal S_(ASR) to find keywords that match keywords in the library of the local NLU 779. In some embodiments, the signal S_(ASR) can be transmitted from the NMD to another NMD for processing via its local NLU. For example, the ASR 772 of a first NMD may generate output signal S_(ASR) which can include, for example, one or more strings representing a transcription of the voice input 780. This signal S_(ASR) may then be transmitted to the local NLU of a second, separate NMD for processing to identify an intent based on the S_(ASR). In various embodiments, this transmission of the signal S_(ASR) to a second, separate NMD can be performed instead of or in parallel with passing the signal S_(ASR) to the local NLU 779 of the first NMD.

Some error in performing local automatic speech recognition is expected. Within examples, the ASR 772 may generate a confidence score when transcribing spoken words to text, which indicates how closely the spoken words in the voice input 780 matches the sound patterns for that word. In some implementations, generating a command-keyword event is based on the confidence score for a given command keyword. For instance, the command-keyword engine 771 a may generate a command-keyword event when the confidence score for a given sound exceeds a given threshold value (e.g., 0.5 on a scale of 0-1, indicating that the given sound is more likely than not the command keyword). Conversely, when the confidence score for a given sound is at or below the given threshold value, the command-keyword engine 771 a does not generate the command-keyword event.

Similarly, some error in performing keyword matching is expected. Within examples, the local NLU may generate a confidence score when determining an intent, which indicates how closely the transcribed words in the signal S_(ASR) match the corresponding keywords in the library of the local NLU. In some implementations, performing an operation according to a determined intent is based on the confidence score for keywords matched in the signal S_(ASR). For instance, the NMD 703 may perform an operation according to a determined intent when the confidence score for a given sound exceeds a given threshold value (e.g., 0.5 on a scale of 0-1, indicating that the given sound is more likely than not the command keyword). Conversely, when the confidence score for a given intent is at or below the given threshold value, the NMD 703 does not perform the operation according to the determined intent.

In some embodiments, keyword matching can be performed via NLUs of two or more different NMDs on a local network, and the results can be compared or otherwise combined to cross-check the results, thereby increasing confidence and reducing the rate of false positives. For example, a first NMD may identify a keyword in voice input with a first confidence score. A second NMD may separately perform keyword detection on the same voice input (either by separately capturing the same user speech or by receiving sound input data from the first NMD transmitted over the local area network). The second NMD may transmit the results of its keyword matching to the first NMD for comparison and evaluation. If, for example, the first and second NMD each identified the same keyword, a false positive is less likely. If, by contrast, the first and second NMD each identified a different keyword (or if one did not identify a keyword at all), then a false positive is more likely, and the first NMD may decline to take further action. In some embodiments, the identified keywords and/or any associated confidence scores can be compared between the two NMDs to make a final intent determination. In some embodiments, the respective NLUs of the first and second NMDs can be similarly or identically configured (e.g., having the same libraries of keywords), or optionally the NLUs can be configured differently (e.g., having different libraries of keywords). Although these examples are described with respect to two NMDs, this comparison can be extended to three, four, five, or more different NMDs.

In some embodiments, such cross-checking can be performed not between two different NMDs, but between different sound data streams SDS obtained via a single NMD 703. For example, the NMD 703 can be configured to generate a first sound-data stream S_(DS) representing data obtained from a first subset of the microphones 720, and to generate a second sound-data stream S_(DS) representing data obtained from a second subset of the microphones 720 that is different from the first. In an NMD having six microphones 720, the first sound-data stream S_(DS) may be generated using data from microphones 1-3, while the second sound-data stream S_(DS) may be generated using data from microphones 4-6. Optionally, in some embodiments the subsets of the microphones can include some overlapping microphones—for example the first sound-data stream S_(DS) can include data from microphones 1-4 and the second sound data stream can include data from microphones 3-6. Additionally, in some embodiments there may be three, four, five, or more different sound-data streams S_(DS) generated using different subsets of microphones or other variations in processing of voice input. Optionally, in some instances a sound-data stream S_(DS) can include input from individual microphones of different NMDs, for example combining inputs from two microphones of a first NMD and two microphones of a second NMD. However generated, these different sound-data streams S_(DS) can then be separately evaluated by the command-keyword engine 771 and the results can be compared or otherwise combined. For example, the NMD 703 may perform an action if and only if each of the local NLU 779 identifies the same keyword(s) in each of the evaluated sound-data streams S_(DS).

As noted above, in some implementations, a phrase may be used as a command keyword, which provides additional syllables to match (or not match). For instance, the phrase “play me some music” has more syllables than “play,” which provides additional sound patterns to match to words. Accordingly, command keywords that are phrases may generally be less prone to false wake word triggers.

As indicated above, the NMD 703 generates a command-keyword event (and performs a command corresponding to the detected command keyword) only when certain conditions corresponding to a detected command keyword are met. These conditions are intended to lower the prevalence of false positive command-keyword events. For instance, after detecting the command keyword “skip,” the NMD 703 generates a command-keyword event (and skips to the next track) only when certain playback conditions indicating that a skip should be performed are met. These playback conditions may include, for example, (i) a first condition that a media item is being played back, (ii) a second condition that a queue is active, and (iii) a third condition that the queue includes a media item subsequent to the media item being played back. If any of these conditions are not satisfied, the command-keyword event is not generated (and no skip is performed).

The NMD 703 includes the one or more state machine(s) 775 to facilitate determining whether the appropriate conditions are met. The state machine 775 transitions between a first state and a second state based on whether one or more conditions corresponding to the detected command keyword are met. In particular, for a given command keyword corresponding to a particular command requiring one or more particular conditions, the state machine 775 transitions into a first state when one or more particular conditions are satisfied and transitions into a second state when at least one condition of the one or more particular conditions is not satisfied.

Within example implementations, the command conditions are based on states indicated in state variables. As noted above, the devices of the MPS 100 may store state variables describing the state of the respective device. For instance, the playback devices 102 may store state variables indicating the state of the playback devices 102, such as the audio content currently playing (or paused), the volume levels, network connection status, and the like). These state variables are updated (e.g., periodically, or based on an event (i.e., when a state in a state variable changes)) and the state variables further can be shared among the devices of the MPS 100, including the NMD 703.

Similarly, the NMD 703 may maintain these state variables (either by virtue of being implemented in a playback device or as a stand-alone NMD). The state machine 775 monitors the states indicated in these state variables, and determines whether the states indicated in the appropriate state variables indicate that the command condition(s) are satisfied. Based on these determinations, the state machine 775 transitions between the first state and the second state, as described above.

In some implementations, the command-keyword engine 771 may be disabled unless certain conditions have been met via the state machines, and/or the available keywords to be identified by the command-keyword engine can be limited based on conditions as reflected via the state machines. As one example, the first state and the second state of the state machine 775 may operate as enable/disable toggles to the command-keyword engine 771 a. In particular, while a state machine 775 corresponding to a particular command keyword is in the first state, the state machine 775 enables the command-keyword engine 771 a of the particular command keyword. Conversely, while the state machine 775 corresponding to the particular command keyword is in the second state, the state machine 775 disables the command-keyword engine 771 a of the particular command keyword. Accordingly, the disabled command-keyword engine 771 a ceases analyzing the sound-data stream S_(DS). In such cases when at least one command condition is not satisfied, the NMD 703 may suppress generation of command-keyword event when the command-keyword engine 771 a detects a command keyword. Suppressing generation may involve gating, blocking or otherwise preventing output from the command-keyword engine 771 a from generating the command-keyword event. Alternatively, suppressing generation may involve the NMD 703 ceasing to feed the sound data stream S_(DS) to the ASR 772. Such suppression prevents a command corresponding to the detected command keyword from being performed when at least one command condition is not satisfied. In such embodiments, the command-keyword engine 771 a may continue analyzing the sound data stream S_(DS) while the state machine 775 is in the first state, but command-keyword events are disabled.

Other example conditions may be based on the output of a voice activity detector (“VAD”) 765. The VAD 765 is configured to detect the presence (or lack thereof) of voice activity in the sound-data stream S_(DS). In particular, the VAD 765 may analyze frames corresponding to the pre-roll portion of the voice input 780 (FIG. 2D) with one or more voice detection algorithms to determine whether voice activity was present in the environment in certain time windows prior to a keyword portion of the voice input 780.

The VAD 765 may utilize any suitable voice activity detection algorithms. Example voice detection algorithms involve determining whether a given frame includes one or more features or qualities that correspond to voice activity, and further determining whether those features or qualities diverge from noise to a given extent (e.g., if a value exceeds a threshold for a given frame). Some example voice detection algorithms involve filtering or otherwise reducing noise in the frames prior to identifying the features or qualities.

In some examples, the VAD 765 may determine whether voice activity is present in the environment based on one or more metrics. For example, the VAD 765 can be configured distinguish between frames that include voice activity and frames that don't include voice activity. The frames that the VAD determines have voice activity may be caused by speech regardless of whether it near- or far-field. In this example and others, the VAD 765 may determine a count of frames in the pre-roll portion of the voice input 780 that indicate voice activity. If this count exceeds a threshold percentage or number of frames, the VAD 765 may be configured to output a signal or set a state variable indicating that voice activity is present in the environment. Other metrics may be used as well in addition to, or as an alternative to, such a count.

The presence of voice activity in an environment may indicate that a voice input is being directed to the NMD 73. Accordingly, when the VAD 765 indicates that voice activity is not present in the environment (perhaps as indicated by a state variable set by the VAD 765) this may be configured as one of the command conditions for the command keywords. When this condition is met (i.e., the VAD 765 indicates that voice activity is present in the environment), the state machine 775 will transition to the first state to enable performing commands based on command keywords, so long as any other conditions for a particular command keyword are satisfied.

Further, in some implementations, the NMD 703 may include a noise classifier 766. The noise classifier 766 is configured to determine sound metadata (frequency response, signal levels, etc.) and identify signatures in the sound metadata corresponding to various noise sources. The noise classifier 766 may include a neural network or other mathematical model configured to identify different types of noise in detected sound data or metadata. One classification of noise may be speech (e.g., far-field speech). Another classification may be a specific type of speech, such as background speech, and example of which is described in greater detail with reference to FIG. 8 . Background speech may be differentiated from other types of voice-like activity, such as more general voice activity (e.g., cadence, pauses, or other characteristics) of voice-like activity detected by the VAD 765.

For example, analyzing the sound metadata can include comparing one or more features of the sound metadata with known noise reference values or a sample population data with known noise. For example, any features of the sound metadata such as signal levels, frequency response spectra, etc. can be compared with noise reference values or values collected and averaged over a sample population. In some examples, analyzing the sound metadata includes projecting the frequency response spectrum onto an eigenspace corresponding to aggregated frequency response spectra from a population of NMDs. Further, projecting the frequency response spectrum onto an eigenspace can be performed as a pre-processing step to facilitate downstream classification.

In various embodiments, any number of different techniques for classification of noise using the sound metadata can be used, for example machine learning using decision trees, or Bayesian classifiers, neural networks, or any other classification techniques. Alternatively or additionally, various clustering techniques may be used, for example K-Means clustering, mean-shift clustering, expectation-maximization clustering, or any other suitable clustering technique. Techniques to classify noise may include one or more techniques disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 16/227,308 filed Dec. 20, 2018, and titled “Optimization of Network Microphone Devices Using Noise Classification,” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

To illustrate, FIG. 8 shows a first plot 882 a and a second plot 882 b. The first plot 882 a and the second plot 882 b show analyzed sound metadata associated with background speech. These signatures shown in the plots are generated using principal component analysis (PCA). Collected data from a variety of NMDs provides an overall distribution of possible frequency response spectra. In general, principal component analysis can be used to find the orthogonal basis that describes the variance in all the field data. This eigenspace is reflected in the contours shown in the plots of FIG. 8 . Each dot in the plot represents a known noise value (e.g., a single frequency response spectrum from an NMD exposed to the noted noise source) that is projected onto the eigenspace. As seen in FIG. 8 , these known noise values cluster together when projected onto the eigenspace. In this example, the FIG. 8 plots are representative of a four-vector analysis, where each vector corresponds to a respective feature. The features collectively are a signature for background speech.

Referring back to FIG. 7A, in some implementations, the additional buffer 769 (shown in dashed lines) may store information (e.g., metadata or the like) regarding the detected sound S_(D) that was processed by the upstream AEC 763 and spatial processor 764. This additional buffer 769 may be referred to as a “sound metadata buffer.” Examples of such sound metadata include: (1) frequency response data, (2) echo return loss enhancement measures, (3) voice direction measures; (4) arbitration statistics; and/or (5) speech spectral data. In example implementations, the noise classifier 766 may analyze the sound metadata in the buffer 769 to classify noise in the detected sound SD.

As noted above, one classification of sound may be background speech, such as speech indicative of far-field speech and/or speech indicative of a conversation not involving the NMD 703. The noise classifier 766 may output a signal and/or set a state variable indicating that background speech is present in the environment. The presence of voice activity (i.e., speech) in the pre-roll portion of the voice input 780 indicates that the voice input 780 might not be directed to the NMD 703, but instead be conversational speech within the environment. For instance, a household member might speak something like “our kids should have a play date soon” without intending to direct the command keyword “play” to the NMD 703.

Further, when the noise classifier indicates that background speech is present is present in the environment, this condition may disable the command-keyword engine 771 a. In some implementations, the condition of background speech being absent in the environment (perhaps as indicated by a state variable set by the noise classifier 766) is configured as one of the command conditions for the command keywords. Accordingly, the state machine 775 will not transition to the first state when the noise classifier 766 indicates that background speech is present in the environment.

Further, the noise classifier 766 may determine whether background speech is present in the environment based on one or more metrics. For example, the noise classifier 766 may determine a count of frames in the pre-roll portion of the voice input 780 that indicate background speech. If this count exceeds a threshold percentage or number of frames, the noise classifier 766 may be configured to output the signal or set the state variable indicating that background speech is present in the environment. Other metrics may be used as well in addition to, or as an alternative to, such a count.

Within example implementations, the NMD 703 may support a plurality of command keywords. To facilitate such support, the command-keyword engine 771 a may implement multiple identification algorithms corresponding to respective command keywords. Alternatively, the NMD 703 may implement additional command-keyword engines 771 b configured to identify respective command keywords. Yet further, the library of the local NLU 779 may include a plurality of command keywords and be configured to search for text patterns corresponding to these command keywords in the signal S_(ASR).

Further, command keywords may require different conditions. For instance, the conditions for “skip” may be different than the conditions for “play” as “skip” may require that the condition that a media item is being played back and play may require the opposite condition that a media item is not being played back. To facilitate these respective conditions, the NMD 703 may implement respective state machines 775 corresponding to each command keyword. Alternatively, the NMD 703 may implement a state machine 775 having respective states for each command keyword. Other examples are possible as well.

To illustrate exemplary state machine operation, FIG. 7B is a block diagram illustrating the state machine 775 for an example command keyword requiring one or more command conditions. At 777 a, the state machine 775 remains in the first state 778 a while all the command conditions are satisfied. While the state machine 775 remains in the first state 778 a (and all command conditions are met), the NMD 703 will generate a command-keyword event when the command keyword is detected by the command-keyword engine 771 a.

At 777 b, the state machine 775 transitions into the second state 778 b when any command condition is not satisfied. At 777 c, the state machine 775 remains in the second state 778 b while any command condition is not satisfied. While the state machine 775 remains in the second state 778 b, the NMD 703 will not act on the command-keyword event when the command keyword is detected by the command-keyword engine 771 a.

Referring back to FIG. 7A, in some examples, the one or more additional command-keyword engines 771 b may include custom command-keyword engines. Cloud service providers, such as streaming audio services, may provide a custom keyword engine pre-configured with identification algorithms configured to spot service-specific command keywords. These service-specific command keywords may include commands for custom service features and/or custom names used in accessing the service.

For instance, the NMD 703 may include a particular streaming audio service (e.g., Apple Music) command-keyword engine 771 b. This particular command-keyword engine 771 b may be configured to detect command keywords specific to the particular streaming audio service and generate streaming audio service wake word events. For instance, one command keyword may be “Friends Mix,” which corresponds to a command to play back a custom playlist generated from playback histories of one or more “friends” within the particular streaming audio service.

In some embodiments, different NMDs 703 of the same media playback system 100 can have different additional custom command-keyword engines 771 b. For example, a first NMD may include a custom command-keyword engine 771 b having an NLU configured with a library of keywords configured for a particular streaming audio service (e.g., Apple Music) while a second NMD includes a custom-command keyword engine 771 b having an NLU configured with a library of keywords configured to a different streaming audio service (e.g., Spotify). In operation, voice input received at either NMD may be transmitted to the other NMD for processing, such that in combination the media playback system may effectively evaluate voice input for keywords with the benefit of multiple different custom command-keyword engines 771 b distributed among multiple different NMDs 703.

A custom command-keyword engine 771 b may be relatively more prone to false wake words than the VAS wake-word engine 770 a, as generally the VAS wake-word engine 770 a is more sophisticated than a custom command-keyword engine 771 b. To mitigate this, custom command keywords may require one or more conditions to be satisfied before generating a custom command-keyword event. Further, in some implementations, in an effort to reduce the prevalence of false positives, multiple conditions may be imposed as a requirement to include a custom command-keyword engine 771 b in the NMD 703.

These custom command keyword conditions may include service-specific conditions. For instance, command keywords corresponding to premium features or playlists may require a subscription as a condition. As another example, custom command keywords corresponding to a particular streaming audio service may require media items from that streaming audio service in the playback queue. Other conditions are possible as well.

To gate custom command-keyword engines based on the custom command keyword conditions, the NMD 703 may additional state machines 775 corresponding to each custom command keyword. Alternatively, the NMD 703 may implement a state machine 775 having respective states for each custom command keyword. Other examples are possible as well. These custom command conditions may depend on the state variables maintained by the devices within the MPS 100, and may also depend on state variables or other data structures representing a state of a user account of a cloud service, such as a streaming audio service.

FIGS. 9A and 9B show a table 985 illustrating exemplary command keywords and corresponding conditions. As shown in the Figures, example command keywords may include cognates having similar intent and requiring similar conditions. For instance, the “next” command keyword has cognates of “skip” and “forward,” each of which invokes a skip command under appropriate conditions. The conditions shown in the table 985 are illustrative; various implementations may use different conditions.

Referring back to FIG. 7A, in example embodiments, the VAS wake-word engine 770 a and the command-keyword engine 771 a may take a variety of forms. For example, the VAS wake-word engine 770 a and the command-keyword engine 771 a may take the form of one or more modules that are stored in memory of the NMD 703 (e.g., the memory 112 b of FIG. 1F). As another example, the VAS wake-word engine 770 a and the command-keyword engine 771 a may take the form of a general purposes or special-purpose processor, or modules thereof. In this respect, multiple wake word engines 770 and 771 may be part of the same component of the NMD 703 or each wake-word engine 770 and 771 may take the form of a component that is dedicated for the particular wake-word engine. Other possibilities also exist.

To further reduce false positives, the command-keyword engine 771 a may utilize a relative low sensitivity compared with the VAS wake-word engine 770 a. In practice, a wake-word engine may include a sensitivity level setting that is modifiable. The sensitivity level may define a degree of similarity between a word identified in the detected sound stream S_(DS1) and the wake-word engine's one or more particular wake words that is considered to be a match (i.e., that triggers a VAS wake-word or command-keyword event). In other words, the sensitivity level defines how closely, as one example, the spectral characteristics in the detected sound stream S_(DS2) must match the spectral characteristics of the engine's one or more wake words to be a wake-word trigger.

In this respect, the sensitivity level generally controls how many false positives that the VAS wake-word engine 770 a and command-keyword engine 771 a identifies. For example, if the VAS wake-word engine 770 a is configured to identify the wake-word “Alexa” with a relatively high sensitivity, then false wake words of “Election” or “Lexus” may cause the wake-word engine 770 a to flag the presence of the wake-word “Alexa.” In contrast, if the command-keyword engine 771 a is configured with a relatively low sensitivity, then the false wake words of “may” or “day” would not cause the command-keyword engine 771 a to flag the presence of the command keyword “Play.”

In practice, a sensitivity level may take a variety of forms. In example implementations, a sensitivity level takes the form of a confidence threshold that defines a minimum confidence (i.e., probability) level for a wake-word engine that serves as a dividing line between triggering or not triggering a wake-word event when the wake-word engine is analyzing detected sound for its particular wake word. In this regard, a higher sensitivity level corresponds to a lower confidence threshold (and more false positives), whereas a lower sensitivity level corresponds to a higher confidence threshold (and fewer false positives). For example, lowering a wake-word engine's confidence threshold configures it to trigger a wake-word event when it identifies words that have a lower likelihood that they are the actual particular wake word, whereas raising the confidence threshold configures the engine to trigger a wake-word event when it identifies words that have a higher likelihood that they are the actual particular wake word. Within examples, a sensitivity level of the command-keyword engine 771 a may be based on more or more confidence scores, such as the confidence score in spotting a command keyword and/or a confidence score in determining an intent. Other examples of sensitivity levels are also possible.

In example implementations, sensitivity level parameters (e.g., the range of sensitivities) for a particular wake-word engine can be updated, which may occur in a variety of manners. As one possibility, a VAS or other third-party provider of a given wake-word engine may provide to the NMD 703 a wake-word engine update that modifies one or more sensitivity level parameters for the given VAS wake-word engine 770 a. By contrast, the sensitive level parameters of the command-keyword engine 771 a may be configured by the manufacturer of the NMD 703 or by another cloud service (e.g., for a custom wake-word engine 771 b).

Notably, within certain examples, the NMD 703 foregoes sending any data representing the detected sound S_(D) (e.g., the messages M_(V)) to a VAS when processing a voice input 780 including a command keyword. In implementations including the local NLU 779, the NMD 703 can further process the voice utterance portion of the voice input 780 (in addition to the keyword word portion) without necessarily sending the voice utterance portion of the voice input 780 to the VAS. Accordingly, speaking a voice input 780 (with a command keyword) to the NMD 703 may provide increased privacy relative to other NMDs that process all voice inputs using a VAS.

As indicated above, the keywords in the library of the local NLU 779 can correspond to parameters. These parameters may define to perform the command corresponding to the detected command keyword. When keywords are recognized in the voice input 780, the command corresponding to the detected command keyword is performed according to parameters corresponding to the detected keywords.

For instance, an example voice input 780 may be “play music at low volume” with “play” being the command keyword portion (corresponding to a playback command) and “music at low volume” being the voice utterance portion. When analyzing this voice input 780, the NLU 779 may recognize that “low volume” is a keyword in its library corresponding to a parameter representing a certain (low) volume level. Accordingly, the NLU 779 may determine an intent to play at this lower volume level. Then, when performing the playback command corresponding to “play,” this command is performed according to the parameter representing a certain volume level.

In a second example, another example voice input 780 may be “play my favorites in the Kitchen” with “play” again being the command keyword portion (corresponding to a playback command) and “my favorites in the Kitchen” as the voice utterance portion. When analyzing this voice input 780, the NLU 779 may recognize that “favorites” and “Kitchen” match keywords in its library. In particular, “favorites” corresponds to a first parameter representing particular audio content (i.e., a particular playlist that includes a user's favorite audio tracks) while “Kitchen” corresponds to a second parameter representing a target for the playback command (i.e., the kitchen 101 h zone. Accordingly, the NLU 779 may determine an intent to play this particular playlist in the kitchen 101 h zone.

In a third example, a further example voice input 780 may be “volume up” with “volume” being the command keyword portion (corresponding to a volume adjustment command) and “up” being the voice utterance portion. When analyzing this voice input 780, the NLU 779 may recognize that “up” is a keyword in its library corresponding to a parameter representing a certain volume increase (e.g., a 10-point increase on a 100-point volume scale). Accordingly, the NLU 779 may determine an intent to increase volume. Then, when performing the volume adjustment command corresponding to “volume,” this command is performed according to the parameter representing the certain volume increase.

Within examples, certain command keywords are functionally linked to a subset of the keywords within the library of the local NLU 779, which may hasten analysis. For instance, the command keyword “skip” may be functionality linked to the keywords “forward” and “backward” and their cognates. Accordingly, when the command keyword “skip” is detected in a given voice input 780, analyzing the voice utterance portion of that voice input 780 with the local NLU 779 may involve determining whether the voice input 780 includes any keywords that match these functionally linked keywords (rather than determining whether the voice input 780 includes any keywords that match any keyword in the library of the local NLU 779). Since vastly fewer keywords are checked, this analysis is relatively quicker than a full search of the library. By contrast, a nonce VAS wake word such as “Alexa” provides no indication as to the scope of the accompanying voice input.

Some commands may require one or more parameters, as such the command keyword alone does not provide enough information to perform the corresponding command. For example, the command keyword “volume” might require a parameter to specify a volume increase or decrease, as the intent of “volume” of volume alone is unclear. As another example, the command keyword “group” may require two or more parameters identifying the target devices to group.

Accordingly, in some example implementations, when a given command keyword is detected in the voice input 780 by the command-keyword engine 771 a, the local NLU 779 may determine whether the voice input 780 includes keywords matching keywords in the library corresponding to the required parameters. If the voice input 780 does include keywords matching the required parameters, the NMD 703 proceeds to perform the command (corresponding to the given command keyword) according to the parameters specified by the keywords.

However, if the voice input 780 does include keywords matching the required parameters for the command, the NMD 703 may prompt the user to provide the parameters. For instance, in a first example, the NMD 703 may play an audible prompt such as “I've heard a command, but I need more information” or “Can I help you with something?” Alternatively, the NMD 703 may send a prompt to a user's personal device via a control application (e.g., the software components 132 c of the control device(s) 104).

In further examples, the NMD 703 may play an audible prompt customized to the detected command keyword. For instance, after detecting a command keyword corresponding to a volume adjustment command (e.g., “volume”), the audible prompt may include a more specific request such as “Do you want to adjust the volume up or down?” As another example, for a grouping command corresponding to the command keyword “group,” the audible prompt may be “Which devices do you want to group?” Supporting such specific audible prompts may be made practicable by supporting a relatively limited number of command keywords (e.g., less than 100), but other implementations may support more command keywords with the trade-off of requiring additional memory and processing capability.

Within additional examples, when a voice utterance portion does not include keywords corresponding to one or more required parameters, the NMD 703 may perform the corresponding command according to one or more default parameters. For instance, if a playback command does not include keywords indicating target playback devices 102 for playback, the NMD 703 may default to playback on the NMD 703 itself (e.g., if the NMD 703 is implemented within a playback device 102) or to playback on one or more associated playback devices 102 (e.g., playback devices 102 in the same room or zone as the NMD 703). Further, in some examples, the user may configure default parameters using a graphical user interface (e.g., user interface 430) or voice user interface. For example, if a grouping command does not specify the playback devices 102 to group, the NMD 703 may default to instructing two or more pre-configured default playback devices 102 to form a synchrony group. Default parameters may be stored in data storage (e.g., the memory 112 b (FIG. 1F)) and accessed when the NMD 703 determines that keywords exclude certain parameters. Other examples are possible as well.

In some cases, the NMD 703 sends the voice input 780 to a VAS when the local NLU 779 is unable to process the voice input 780 (e.g., when the local NLU is unable to find matches to keywords in the library, or when the local NLU 779 has a low confidence score as to intent). In an example, to trigger sending the voice input 780, the NMD 703 may generate a bridging event, which causes the voice extractor 773 to process the sound-data stream SD, as discussed above. That is, the NMD 703 generates a bridging event to trigger the voice extractor 773 without a VAS wake-word being detected by the VAS wake word engine 770 a (instead based on a command keyword in the voice input 780, as well as the NLU 779 being unable to process the voice input 780).

Before sending the voice input 780 to the VAS (e.g., via the messages M_(V)), the NMD 703 may obtain confirmation from the user that the user acquiesces to the voice input 780 being sent to the VAS. For instance, the NMD 703 may play an audible prompt to send the voice input to a default or otherwise configured VAS, such as “I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. May I ask Alexa?” In another example, the NMD 703 may play an audible prompt using a VAS voice (i.e., a voice that is known to most users as being associated with a particular VAS), such as “Can I help you with something?” In such examples, generation of the bridging event (and trigging of the voice extractor 773) is contingent on a second affirmative voice input 780 from the user.

Within certain example implementations, the local NLU 779 may process the signal S_(ASR) without necessarily a command-keyword event being generated by the command-keyword engine 771 a (i.e., directly). That is, the automatic speech recognition 772 may be configured to perform automatic speech recognition on the sound-data stream S_(D), which the local NLU 779 processes for matching keywords without requiring a command-keyword event. If keywords in the voice input 780 are found to match keywords corresponding to a command (possibly with one or more keywords corresponding to one or more parameters), the NMD 703 performs the command according to the one or more parameters.

Further, in such examples, the local NLU 779 may process the signal S_(ASR) directly only when certain conditions are met. In particular, in some embodiments, the local NLU 779 processes the signal S_(ASR) only when the state machine 775 is in the first state. The certain conditions may include a condition corresponding to no background speech in the environment. An indication of whether background speech is present in the environment may come from the noise classifier 766. As noted above, the noise classifier 766 may be configured to output a signal or set a state variable indicating that far-field speech is present in the environment. Further, another condition may correspond to voice activity in the environment. The VAD 765 may be configured to output a signal or set a state variable indicating that voice activity is present in the environment. Similarly, the prevalence of false positive detection of commands with a direct processing approach may be mitigated using the conditions determined by the state machine 775.

In some examples, the library of the local NLU 779 is partially customized to the individual user(s). In a first aspect, the library may be customized to the devices that are within the household of the NMD (e.g., the household within the environment 101 (FIG. 1A)). For instance, the library of the local NLU may include keywords corresponding to the names of the devices within the household, such as the zone names of the playback devices 102 in the MPS 100. In a second aspect, the library may be customized to the users of the devices within the household. For example, the library of the local NLU 779 may include keywords corresponding to names or other identifiers of a user's preferred playlists, artists, albums, and the like. Then, the user may refer to these names or identifiers when directing voice inputs to the command-keyword engine 771 a and the local NLU 779. In some embodiments, different NMDs 703 of the same media playback system 100 can have different NLUs 779 with different customized libraries. For example, a first NMD may include a first subset of device and zone names, and a second NMD may include a second subset of device and zone names.

Within example implementations, the NMD 703 may populate the library of the local NLU 779 locally within the network 111 (FIG. 1B). As noted above, the NMD 703 may maintain or have access to state variables indicating the respective states of devices connected to the network 111 (e.g., the playback devices 104). These state variables may include names of the various devices. For instance, the kitchen 101 h may include the playback device 102 b, which are assigned the zone name “Kitchen.” The NMD 703 may read these names from the state variables and include them in the library of the local NLU 779 by training the local NLU 779 to recognize them as keywords. The keyword entry for a given name may then be associated with the corresponding device in an associated parameter (e.g., by an identifier of the device, such as a MAC address or IP address). The NMD 703 can then use the parameters to customize control commands and direct the commands to a particular device.

In further examples, the NMD 703 may populate the library by discovering devices connected to the network 111. For instance, the NMD 703 may transmit discovery requests via the network 111 according to a protocol configured for device discovery, such as universal plug-and-play (UPnP) or zero-configuration networking. Devices on the network 111 may then respond to the discovery requests and exchange data representing the device names, identifiers, addresses and the like to facilitate communication and control via the network 111. The NMD 703 may read these names from the exchanged messages and include them in the library of the local NLU 779 by training the local NLU 779 to recognize them as keywords.

In further examples, the NMD 703 may populate the library using the cloud. To illustrate, FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of the MPS 100 and a cloud network 902. The cloud network 902 includes cloud servers 906, identified separately as media playback system control servers 906 a, streaming audio service servers 906 b, and IOT cloud servers 906 c. The streaming audio service servers 906 b may represent cloud servers of different streaming audio services. Similarly, the IOT cloud servers 906 c may represent cloud servers corresponding to different cloud services supporting smart devices 990 in the MPS 100.

One or more communication links 903 a, 903 b, and 903 c (referred to hereinafter as “the links 903”) communicatively couple the MPS 100 and the cloud servers 906. The links 903 can include one or more wired networks and one or more wireless networks (e.g., the Internet). Further, similar to the network 111 (FIG. 1B), a network 911 communicatively couples the links 903 and at least a portion of the devices (e.g., one or more of the playback devices 102, NMDs 103 and 703, control devices 104, and/or smart devices 990) of the MPS 100.

In some implementations, the media playback system control servers 906 a facilitate populating the library of local NLU 779 with the NMD(s) 703 (representing one or more of the NMD 703 (FIG. 7A) within the MPS 100). In an example, the media playback system control servers 906 a may receive data representing a request to populate the library of a local NLU 779 from the NMD 703. Based on this request, the media playback system control servers 906 a may communicate with the streaming audio service servers 906 b and/or IOT cloud servers 906 c to obtain keywords specific to the user.

In some embodiments, different NMDs 703 of the same media playback system 100 can have different NLUs 779 with different customized libraries. For example, a first NMD may have an NLU 779 with a library of keywords associated with IOT commands while a second NMD may have an NLU 779 with a library of keywords associated with media streaming services commands. In some embodiments, the library of an NLU 779 can include two or more partitions having different sets of keywords. For example, an NLU 779 can include a first partition of keywords associated with transport commands, and a second partition of keywords associated with IOT commands. One or more of such partitions can be populated using the cloud as described above. For example, the NLU 779 can have an IOT partition in its library that contains keywords populated by one or more of the IOT cloud servers 906 c, while a different NLU can have a media streaming service partition in its library that contains keywords populated by one or more of the audio service servers 906 b.

In some examples, the media playback system control servers 906 a may utilize user accounts and/or user profiles in obtaining keywords specific to the user. As noted above, a user of the MPS 100 may set-up a user profile to define settings and other information within the MPS 100. The user profile may then in turn be registered with user accounts of one or more streaming audio services to facilitate streaming audio from such services to the playback devices 102 of the MPS 100.

Through use of these registered streaming audio services, the streaming audio service servers 906 b may collect data indicating a user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, tracks, and the like, either via usage history or via user input (e.g., via a user input designating a media item as saved or a favorite). This data may be stored in a database on the streaming audio service servers 906 b to facilitate providing certain features of the streaming audio service to the user, such as custom playlists, recommendations, and similar features. Under appropriate conditions (e.g., after receiving user permission), the streaming audio service servers 906 b may share this data with the media playback system control servers 906 a over the links 903 b.

Accordingly, within examples, the media playback system control servers 906 a may maintain or have access to data indicating a user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, tracks, genres, and the like. If a user has registered their user profile with multiple streaming audio services, the saved data may include saved playlists, artists, albums, tracks, and the like from two or more streaming audio services. Further, the media playback system control servers 906 a may develop a more complete understanding of the user's preferred playlists, artists, albums, tracks, and the like by aggregating data from the two or more streaming audio services, as compared with a streaming audio service that only has access to data generated through use of its own service.

Moreover, in some implementations, in addition to the data shared from the streaming audio service servers 906 b, the media playback system control servers 906 a may collect usage data from the MPS 100 over the links 903 a, after receiving user permission. This may include data indicating a user's saved or preferred media items on a zone basis. Different types of music may be preferred in different rooms. For instance, a user may prefer upbeat music in the Kitchen 101 h and more mellow music to assist with focus in the Office 101 e.

Using the data indicating a user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, tracks, and the like, the media playback system control servers 906 a may identify names of playlists, artists, albums, tracks, and the like that the user is likely to refer to when providing playback commands to the NMDs 703 via voice input. Data representing these names can then be transmitted via the links 903 a and the network 904 to the NMDs 703 and then added to the library of the local NLU 779 as keywords. For instance, the media playback system control servers 906 a may send instructions to the NMDs 703 to include certain names as keywords in the library of the local NLU 779. Alternatively, the NMDs 703 (or another device of the MPS 100) may identify names of playlists, artists, albums, tracks, and the like that the user is likely to refer to when providing playback commands to the NMDs 703 via voice input and then include these names in the library of the local NLU 779.

Due to such customization, similar voice inputs may result in different operations being performed when the voice input is processed by the local NLU 779 as compared with processing by a VAS. For instance, a first voice input of “Alexa, play me my favorites in the Office” may trigger a VAS wake word event, as it includes a VAS wake word (“Alexa”). A second voice input of “Play me my favorites in the Office” may trigger a command keyword, as it includes a command keyword (“play”). Accordingly, the first voice input is sent by the NMD 703 to the VAS, while the second voice input is processed by the local NLU 779.

While these voice inputs are nearly identical, they may cause different operations. In particular, the VAS may, to the best of its ability, determine a first playlist of audio tracks to add to a queue of the playback device 102 f in the office 101 e. Similarly, the local NLU 779 may recognize keywords “favorites” and “kitchen” in the second voice input. Accordingly, the NMD 703 performs the voice command of “play” with parameters of <favorites playlist> and <kitchen 101 h zone>, which causes a second playlist of audio tracks to be added to the queue of the playback device 102 f in the office 101 e. However, the second playlist of audio tracks may include a more complete and/or more accurate collection of the user's favorite audio tracks, as the second playlist of audio tracks may draw on data indicating a user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, and tracks from multiple streaming audio services, and/or the usage data collected by the media playback system control servers 906 a. In contrast, the VAS may draw on its relatively limited conception of the user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, and tracks when determining the first playlist.

A household may include multiple users. Two or more users may configure their own respective user profiles with the MPS 100. Each user profile may have its own user accounts of one or more streaming audio services associated with the respective user profile. Further, the media playback system control servers 906 a may maintain or have access to data indicating each user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, tracks, genres, and the like, which may be associated with the user profile of that user.

In various examples, names corresponding to user profiles may be populated in the library of the local NLU 779. This may facilitate referring to a particular user's saved or preferred playlists, artists, albums, tracks, or genres. For instance, when a voice input of “Play Anne's favorites on the patio” is processed by the local NLU 779, the local NLU 779 may determine that “Anne” matches a stored keyword corresponding to a particular user. Then, when performing the playback command corresponding to that voice input, the NMD 703 adds a playlist of that particular user's favorite audio tracks to the queue of the playback device 102 c in the patio 101 i. In some embodiments, different NMDs 703 of the MPS 100 have local NLUs 779 storing keywords associated with different user profiles. For example, a first NMD can have a first NLU 779 with keywords associated with a first user, Anne. Meanwhile, a second NMD can have a second NLU 779 storing keywords associated with a second user, Bryan.

In some cases, a voice input might not include a keyword corresponding to a particular user, but multiple user profiles are configured with the MPS 100. In some cases, the NMD 703 may determine the user profile to use in performing a command using voice recognition. Alternatively, the NMD 703 may default to a certain user profile. Further, the NMD 703 may use preferences from the multiple user profiles when performing a command corresponding to a voice input that did not identify a particular user profile. For instance, the NMD 703 may determine a favorites playlist including preferred or saved audio tracks from each user profile registered with the MPS 100.

The IOT cloud servers 906 c may be configured to provide supporting cloud services to the smart devices 990. The smart devices 990 may include various “smart” internet-connected devices, such as lights, thermostats, cameras, security systems, appliances, and the like. For instance, an IOT cloud server 906 c may provide a cloud service supporting a smart thermostat, which allows a user to control the smart thermostat over the internet via a smartphone app or website.

Accordingly, within examples, the IOT cloud servers 906 c may maintain or have access to data associated with a user's smart devices 990, such as device names, settings, and configuration. Under appropriate conditions (e.g., after receiving user permission), the IOT cloud servers 906 c may share this data with the media playback system control servers 906 a and/or the NMD 703 via the links 903 c. For instance, the IOT cloud servers 906 c that provide the smart thermostat cloud service may provide data representing such keywords to the NMD 703, which facilitates populating the library of the local NLU 779 with keywords corresponding to the temperature.

Yet further, in some cases, the IOT cloud servers 906 c may also provide keywords specific to control of their corresponding smart devices 990. For instance, the IOT cloud server 906 c that provides the cloud service supporting the smart thermostat may provide a set of keywords corresponding to voice control of a thermostat, such as “temperature,” “warmer,” or “cooler,” among other examples. Data representing such keywords may be sent to the NMDs 703 over the links 903 and the network 904 from the IOT cloud servers 906 c.

As noted above, some households may include more than NMD 703. In example implementations, two or more NMDs 703 may synchronize or otherwise update the libraries of their respective local NLU 779. For instance, a first NMD 703 and a second NMD 703 may share data representing the libraries of their respective local NLU 779, possibly using a network (e.g., the network 904). Such sharing may facilitate the NMDs 703 being able to respond to voice input similarly, among other possible benefits. As noted elsewhere herein, in various embodiments the libraries of the respective local NLUs 779 of the NMD 703 can be identical or may vary from one to the next. In operation, voice input received at one NMD may be processed for keyword detection using local NLUs 779 of multiple different NMDs. This can advantageously expand the number of possible keywords to be identified in the voice input, as different NMDs can have NLUs 779 that support different libraries of keywords. For example, if a voice input contains a keyword that is not stored on the library of a first NLU 779 of a first NMD 703, the keyword may nonetheless be present in a library of a second NLU 779 of a second NMD 703. In some embodiments, this can also allow cross-checking of keyword detection to improve confidence and lower error rates.

In some instances, an NMD 703 that receives a voice input can selectively transmit the voice input to some but not all of the other NMDs 703 on the local network to perform keyword detection. For example, a first NMD 703 may identify the keyword “Spotify” in a voice input. Based on this keyword detection, the first NMD may transmit the voice input to a second NMD that is identified as having a library associated with Spotify commands (or media streaming service commands more generally). Similarly, if the first NMD 703 identifies the keyword “thermostat” in a voice input, the first NMD may transmit the voice input to a third NMD on the local network that is identified as having a library associated with IOT commands. Additionally or alternatively, a first NMD 703 may process voice input via its ASR and then, based on one or more keywords identified via the ASR, pass the ASR output to a second NMD for processing via its own NLU, which may include a different library of keywords associated with different intent categories. As one example, a first NMD 703 may identify the keyword “Spotify” in voice input via its onboard ASR. Based on this identified keyword, the output of the ASR (e.g., a text string representing the voice input) can be transmitted to a particular NMD having an NLU with a library of keywords associated with Spotify-specific commands. As a result, even if the identified keyword (in this example, “Spotify”) is not sufficient to identify an associated intent, the identified keyword via the ASR is sufficient to direct the ASR output to an appropriate NLU for intent evaluation. In such a configuration, an environment may include multiple devices each having one or more ASRs and each having different NLUs with intent engines configured to identify intents based on the ASR output. For example, one device may have a local NLU configured to determine intents relating to music playback, while another device has an NLU configured to determine intents relating to home automation. In another example, one device could have an NLU with a rules-based intent engine, while a second device may have an NLU with a statistical intent engine, and a third device has a hybrid intent engine. Accordingly, an ASR output can be routed from one device to one or more different NLUs having different libraries and configured to identify different categories of intents.

In some embodiments, the ASR output can be evaluated in context to determine which device should receive the ASR output for intent processing. For example, the ASR output may have an associated confidence score associated with different text strings. In some instances, even if a particular text string has a low associated confidence, the context (i.e., the other words or phrases in the ASR output) may raise the overall confidence. For example, based on a user speaking the word “Spotify” in noisy conditions, the ASR output may provide a 40% confidence that the term “Spotify” is detected, and a 50% confidence that the term “notify” is detected. However, if the same ASR output also contains higher confidence in the terms “play” and “my favorites,” then the ASR output may be modified to assign a higher confidence to the term “Spotify,” since, in the context of “play my favorites,” the overall likelihood of “Spotify” in the voice input is higher than “notify.” In response, the ASR output may be transmitted to an NMD having a local NLU with a library of keywords associated with Spotify commands.

In some instances, the system can receive feedback regarding whether the analysis was correct (i.e., whether the user is satisfied with the identified intent). Over time, the distribution of NLUs may be organized such that the intent engines evolve over time towards higher performance. For example, over time, each NMD may apply small changes to its intent engine (e.g., changing supported keywords, changing statistical thresholds for identification of intent, changing internal rules for intent determination, etc.). Based on collected feedback, whichever device proves to be correct most often may then be copied into other devices. These devices may then again make small changes to their respective intent engines and the cycle repeats.

In some embodiments, the various NLUs distributed among a plurality of devices in the user environment can be configured such that each NLU performs a specific function or set of functions on ASR output (whether received from that particular NMD or from another local NMD). For example, one NLU may perform parsing, another may tag keywords, another may perform grammar analysis, etc.

In some embodiments, one or more of the components described above can operate in conjunction with the microphones 720 to detect and store a user's voice profile, which may be associated with a user account of the MPS 100. In some embodiments, voice profiles may be stored as and/or compared to variables stored in a set of command information or data table. The voice profile may include aspects of the tone or frequency of a user's voice and/or other unique aspects of the user, such as those described in previously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749.

In some embodiments, one or more of the components described above can operate in conjunction with the microphones 720 to determine the location of a user in the home environment and/or relative to a location of one or more of the NMDs 103. Techniques for determining the location or proximity of a user may include one or more techniques disclosed in previously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749, U.S. Pat. No. 9,084,058 filed Dec. 29, 2011, and titled “Sound Field Calibration Using Listener Localization,” and U.S. Pat. No. 8,965,033 filed Aug. 31, 2012, and titled “Acoustic Optimization.” Each of these applications is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

IV. Examples of Gatekeeping for Voice Intent Processing

As noted above, in some implementations the NMD 703 can process, via the command keyword engine 771 a, voice inputs even in the absence of a nonce wakeword. In such instances, for example, the ASR 772 can continuously monitor the sound data stream S_(DS) and provide an output signal S_(ASR) (e.g., transcribed speech recognition) to the local NLU 779 for intent determination. The NLU 779 can evaluate the transcribed speech (or other output from the ASR) to identify one or more keywords in addition to determining an associated intent. The NLU 779 can assign associated confidence scores for these processes, and in some implementations the NMD 703 only performs a command according to the intent if the associated confidence score(s) exceed a predetermined threshold. While continuous monitoring of audio input for commands without requiring a wakeword improves the user experience, detection of false positives may undermine the user's confidence in the voice processing capabilities of the NMD and generally degrade the user's experience. As such, to reduce the risk of false positives while allowing users to provide commands via voice input without the use of a wakeword, the NLU 779 can evaluate the determined intent and/or the identified keywords for one or more confirmatory conditions. This secondary evaluation of the keyword(s) and/or determined intent can serve a gatekeeping function, increasing the confidence of the resulting intent determination, and thereby reducing the risk of false positives. As described in more detail below, the confirmatory conditions can take various forms, including an evaluation of volume levels of the voice input, identification of certain negative or positive utterance markers, user voice recognition, and/or context information (e.g., current playback state, device names, etc.).

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of certain components of NMD 703 with various blocks omitted for clarity. As shown, the voice input 780 can be provided as an input to keyword recognition module 1102. This keyword recognition module 1102 can be, for example, the command-keyword engine 771 a, the local NLU 779, and/or a separate keyword engine. In some examples, the voice input 780 can be continuously provided to the keyword recognition module 1102 on an ongoing basis. If, at the keyword recognition module 1102, no keywords are detected, then the voice input can be discarded as non-relevant speech. If, however, one or more keyword(s) are detected, then the NMD 703 can proceed to determine an associated intent via intent engine 1104. The intent engine 1104 can be a part of the NLU 779, and can be configured to determine an intent based on the identified keywords. Optionally, this determination also includes evaluation of state variables (e.g., the keyword “pause” may only be recognized as a determined intent if audio is currently being played back). In some examples, the input provided to the intent engine 1104 takes the form of transcribed audio generated by the ASR 772 (FIG. 7 ).

After an intent is determined via the intent engine 1104, one or more confirmation conditions 1106 can be applied. Based on these condition(s), the NMD 703 may either perform a command according to the determined intent or discard the voice input as non-relevant speech. As such, these confirmation conditions 1106 serve as a secondary analysis to filter out user input that, while containing keywords that may correspond to an intent, is nonetheless determined to be likely a false positive (i.e., user speech that was not intended to include a command utterance). Such false positives may include, for example, user background speech or conversation that happens to include one or more keywords but was nonetheless not intended to provide a command to the NMD 703. To avoid such false positives, the confirmation conditions 1106 applied to the output of the intent engine 1104 can serve to increase the confidence of the determined intent. In the illustrated example, there are three confirmation conditions 1106 a—c, indicating that various discrete evaluations may be performed with respect to the voice input, detected keywords, and/or determined intent. In various examples, the results of each of these conditions 1106 a—c can be combined, compared, or otherwise aggregated to produce a single confidence score that indicates whether the corresponding command is performed by the NMD 703. Any number of confirmation conditions 1106 can be applied in various examples. In at least some examples, a single confirmation condition 1106 a is applied to the output of the intent engine 1104.

In various examples, these confirmation conditions 1106 can take a variety of forms. Among examples, the NLU 779 may evaluate the voice input to check for verbal conversational markers that distinguish an utterance containing a command intent from other kinds of human speech (e.g., background conversational speech). Such markers may include, for example, the detection of music-related or playback-related terms (in the context of audio playback control), such as “music,” “song,” “pause,” “resume,” etc. Negative markers, which may indicate that the voice input is not an utterance containing a command to be processed, can include the presence of other object names (e.g., “washing machine,” “dog,” “homework,” and activities (e.g., “doing,” “washing”). Further examples of negative marker include sentence connectors (“and,” “if,” “when,” “while”), future time indicators (e.g. “later,” “tonight”), and names and appellative terms (e.g., “Charles,” “mom”). These various markers can be identified, compared, and evaluated to determine whether the determined intent is a true utterance expressing a command or is instead a false positive (i.e., a voice input which was erroneously recognized as expressing a command intent). As a simplified example, the number of negative markers can be subtracted from the sum of the positive markers, and the resulting number can indicate a likelihood of a true positive (with a larger positive number indicating increased confidence, and a smaller positive or even negative number indicating lower confidence).

Additionally, true command utterances are more likely to have extended silent periods than typical conversation (e.g., silent periods of greater than 500 ms preceding or following an utterance). Silent periods (or other periods of non-speech inputs) can therefore be detected and used to compare command utterances (which often include notable silent periods) from background conversational speech, television audio, or other non-command audio input (which may not include such silent periods). As such, the NLU may evaluate the voice input to determine whether reduced-volume periods (e.g., captured sound levels are lower than a predetermined threshold) of greater than a predetermined time threshold are present. If so, the determined intent is more likely to be correct.

In some examples, the voice input can be evaluated for any type of non-keyword input, such as reduced-volume periods, silent periods audible but non-speech input (e.g., background noise, non-verbal utterances, coughs, particular environment sounds like a doorbell chime, etc.), or verbal input that is deemed to be unrelated to a keyword (e.g., filler words or interjections such as “um,” “uh,” “hmm,” etc). In at least some examples, a “silent period” or “reduced-volume portion” can refer to a non-speech portion and/or a non-keyword portion of the voice input, even if audible sounds (such as background noise) are still present. In some implementations, such periods can be identified by evaluating input levels of the captured sound data (e.g., sound pressure level of captured audio is below a predetermined threshold), by evaluating the audio for voice activity detection (e.g., discriminating between voice input and non-voice input using spectral analysis or other suitable technique), by classifying captured audio as background noise, or any other suitable technique.

FIG. 12 illustrates four example waveforms of audio input over time. First waveform 1202 includes a reduced-volume period 1204 preceding a voice input (e.g., “play some rock‘n’roll”). If the reduced-volume period 1204 exceeds a predetermined threshold (e.g., greater than 100 ms, 200 ms, 300 ms, 400 ms, 500 ms, 600 ms, 700 ms, 800 ms, 900 ms, 1 s, etc.), then the silent check is deemed to have confirmed that the determined intent associated with the voice input derived from waveform 1202 is likely a true positive. As noted above, in some instances such a “reduced-volume period” or a “silent period” may not be completely silent in the sense of having essentially no captured sound. Instead, such “reduced-volume periods” or “silent periods” may include non-speech and/or non-keyword portions in addition to reduced-volume portions or substantially silent portions of the captured voice input.

The second waveform 1206 includes an intermediate reduced-volume period 1208 between two bursts of verbal input (e.g., “see you soon . . . play some rock‘n’roll). If the reduced-volume period 1208 exceeds the predetermined threshold, then the intent corresponding to the voice input derived from waveform 1206 can be deemed to be likely a true positive.

The third waveform 1210 includes a reduced-volume period 1212, though the reduced-volume period 1212 is significantly shorter than the reduced-volume period 1208 of the second waveform 1206. In such a scenario, if the reduced-volume period 1212 does not meet or exceed the threshold (e.g., shorter than 500 ms), then the intent determination associated with the voice input is rejected as likely a false positive.

Another condition to be applied in evaluating a determined intent may relate to the length of the voice input. User utterances containing a true command are more likely to take the form of short sentences, for example. Accordingly, a word count of the user input can be used to filter the keyword detection, such that voice inputs determined to have a word count greater than n may be deemed more likely to be false positives, while voice inputs determined to have a word greater less than n may be deemed more likely to be true positives. In addition to or instead of a word count, a length of time for a given voice input (e.g., a length of time between adjacent reduced-volume periods) can be calculated and evaluated.

An example of assessing a voice input for total length is shown in FIG. 12 , in which the fourth waveform 1214 includes a relatively long voice input, having a length 1216 (e.g., “can you play some rock‘n’roll in the living room before you leave”). Because the voice input length exceeds a predetermined threshold (e.g., longer than about 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 seconds), the NMD may indicate that the determined intent associated with the voice input derived from the fourth waveform 1214 is likely a false positive, and so the voice input can be discarded as non-relevant human speech.

In some examples, the voice input can be evaluated to identify changing voice levels over time. Large changes in voice levels over time (e.g., an increase in volume at the beginning of an utterance and decrease in volume at the end of an utterance) are more likely indicative of a true user command than constant background speech in which voice levels do not change as sharply over time. Accordingly, the change in voice level over time can be evaluated, such as by calculating a first or second derivative of the acoustic energy of the captured audio. Additionally or alternatively, any suitable measure of variation in the volume level or acoustic energy of the voice input can be used to evaluate the voice input.

FIGS. 13A-13C illustrate plots of example voice inputs and corresponding second derivatives indicative of volume changes over time. For each example, the upper plot depicts the acoustic energy over time (e.g., the root mean square of the output of an acoustic echo cancellation process, or any other suitable parameter indicative of the volume of the captured voice input), while the lower plot depicts the second derivative of the upper plot, with a corresponding threshold demarcated in dashed lines. If the first or second derivative signal exceeds the predetermined threshold, which indicates sharp changes in voice level, then the voice input is more likely to be a true command utterance. Evaluating the voice level changes can be particularly useful during relatively loud audio playback, as the above-mentioned silent check may be infeasible under those conditions.

In various examples, the acoustic energy can be measured in a rolling basis, and a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by one or more microphones of the NMD over a predetermined period (e.g., about 10 seconds). The acoustic energy used may be, for example, the output of the acoustic echo cancellation process of the NMD 703, such that self-sound is reduced or eliminated.

In the example shown in FIG. 13A, the acoustic energy increases and then decreases over time during the user's voice input, which corresponds to an increase in the second derivative that exceeds the labeled threshold at a point in time near the onset of the user's speech. This rapid change in acoustic energy is more indicative of a true user input, and as such the second derivative exceeding the predetermined threshold can increase a confidence that the determined intent is a true positive.

With respect to FIG. 13B, the acoustic energy captured varies over time, but at no point is the change rapid enough to cause the second derivative to surpass the threshold. Accordingly, the voice input depicted in FIG. 13B is more likely to be a false positive such as background speech, television audio, etc.

FIG. 13C illustrates an example in which a single rapid peak and fall in the acoustic energy is captured, reflecting, for example, a loud noise or music beat due to self-sound. In this instance, the second derivative rises but does not surpass the threshold, and accordingly the voice input can be deemed more likely to be false positive, and discarded.

As noted previously, different conditions may be easier or more difficult to evaluate depending on the current playback condition. For example, if audio is being played back at a relatively high level (e.g., volume level above about 40%), then the silent check described above with respect to FIG. 12 may be impractical due to the presence of self-sound. In contrast, the voice input volume change analysis described above with respect to FIGS. 13A-13C may remain practical regardless of the present playback volume. Accordingly, in some examples, the NMD 703 may dynamically toggle between using a silent check process, a volume change analysis process, both, or neither, depending on the particular playback conditions. Additionally or alternatively, the relative weights assigned to each of these confirmation conditions may vary depending on playback conditions or other variables.

In some implementations, to confirm the intent determination via the NLU, the NLU may evaluate the voice input to identify a particular speaker (e.g., intent is only recognized if the voice matches that of an authorized user). If multiple users are present, the NMD 703 may discriminate between voice inputs from different users, such as by only performing a command if the voice input originates from an authorized user. Additionally or alternatively, the intent engine of the NLU 779 may be tailored to particular user's, such as by having different assigned preferred content sources, a stored history of user commands, or other such user-specific data. As such, by recognizing a particular user via voice recognition, the NLU 779 may more accurately capture the user's intent.

Other conditions can relate to context cues, such as the current playback conditions of the NMD. For example, after detecting the command keyword “skip,” an example NMD generates a command-keyword event and skips to the next track only when certain playback conditions indicating that a skip should be performed are met. These playback conditions may include, for example, (i) a first condition that a media item is being played back, (ii) a second condition that a queue is active, and (iii) a third condition that the queue includes a media item subsequent to the media item being played back. If any of these conditions are not satisfied, the command-keyword event is not generated (and no skip is performed).

In some examples, the NMD 703 continuously capture and analyze audio to detect keywords and determine associated intents. However, in some implementations, such evaluation may only be performed following certain trigger conditions. Additionally or alternatively, audio may be continuously captured and analyzed, while the presence of any such trigger conditions can be used to increase or decrease the associated confidence of the determined intent. Additional examples of trigger conditions include: detection of an MPS wakeword (e.g., the word “Sonos” in a sentence), current playback conditions (e.g., currently playing back audio), interaction with a television through an accompanying playback device such as a soundbar, an interaction with the MPS 100 through an associated smartphone or desktop interface, a proximity or presence detection via a playback device (e.g., the determined intent is more likely to be true positive if when user presence is detected), user-specific habits or custom time range (e.g., only process voice input during a given time range), movement detection for portable playback devices, or any other suitable trigger condition.

Once the keyword(s) are detected, the NLU determines an intent, and any appropriate conditions are satisfied, the NMD may perform a command corresponding to the determined intent. In various examples, the NMD may automatically perform the command or may play back an audio response to the user requesting confirmation of the identified command (e.g., “Would you like to turn on the lights in the Living Room?”), after which a subsequent voice input from the user (e.g., “Yes” or “No”) can be processed to confirm the user's intent before proceeding with the identified command.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram showing an example method 1400 for processing a user voice input. The method 1400 may be performed by a networked microphone device, such as the NMD 120 (FIG. 1A), which may include features of the NMD 703 (FIG. 7 ). In some implementations, the NMD is implemented within a playback device, as illustrated by the playback device 102 r (FIG. 1G).

At block 1402, the method 1400 involves capturing a voice input. For example, the NMD may receive input sound data representing sound detected by one or more microphones of an NMD 703 (which may be part of a playback device). For instance, the NMD 703 may detect sound via the microphones 720 (FIG. 7A). Further, the NMD 703 may process the detected sound using one or more components of the VCC 760 to produce input sound data for further processing.

At block 1404, the method 1400 involves detecting, via a command-keyword engine (e.g., command-keyword engine 771 of FIG. 7A), one or more keyword(s) in the captured voice input. To determine whether the voice input includes a keyword, the command-keyword engine 771 a may analyze the sound-data stream SIDS (FIG. 7A). In particular, the ASR 772 may transcribe the sound-data stream SIDS to text (e.g., the signal S_(ASR)) and the local NLU 779 may determine that words matching a keyword are in the transcribed text. In other examples, the command-keyword engine 771 a may use one or more keyword identification algorithms on the sound-data stream S_(DS). Other examples are possible as well.

At block 1406, the method 1400 includes determining, via a local NLU (e.g., NLU 779 of FIG. 7 ), an intent based on the detected keyword(s). As noted previously (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 9A and 9B), the detected keyword(s) and utterance can be evaluated to determine a particular intent. In various examples, the NLU 779 can include one or more intent engines configured to process the output of the ASR 772 to extract intents. Optionally, the determined intent may include an associated confidence score or other indication of confidence in the intent determination. In some examples, the keyword(s) in the voice input may indicate an intent, such as to play particular audio content in a particular zone.

The method 1400 continues in block 1408 with evaluating the keyword(s) based at least in part on a volume characteristic of the voice input. For example, the volume characteristic can be based on a keyword portion of the voice input, a non-keyword portion of the voice input, or both. Among examples, a non-keyword portion of the voice input can include periods of silence or of reduced-volume (e.g., sound pressure level of captured audio is below a predetermined threshold), non-speech inputs (which may be identified using a voice activity detector or other such approach), background noise, or any other such portion of the captured input that does not include the keyword portion itself. Such non-keyword portions may occur preceding the keyword portion, following the keyword portion, or between different keyword portions. In various examples, evaluating the keyword(s) and/or intent determinations based on the volume characteristic can increase the confidence that the identified intent is a true positive. As noted previously, this volume characteristic can include an identification of reduced-volume periods greater than a predetermined time threshold (e.g., captured sound levels below a predetermined threshold for a length of time greater than 500 ms). Additionally or alternatively, the volume characteristic can include an identification of changes in voice levels that exceed a predetermined threshold.

Instead of or in addition to evaluating the voice input for volume characteristics, other parameters can be used to evaluate the identified keyword(s) and/or determined intent to increase confidence levels. For example, certain words can be identified as positive markers (e.g., more likely to be present in a true command utterance) or negative markers (e.g., less likely to be present in a true command utterance). By identifying and comparing the various positive and negative markers identified in the voice utterance, the associated confidence of the intent determination may be modified. For example, if primarily negative markers are identified, the intent determination may be indicated to be more likely a false positive. If the resulting associated confidence level falls below a predetermined threshold, the NMD may forgo further processing. In contrast, if primarily positive markers are identified, the intent determination may be indicated to be more likely a true positive. And if the resulting associated confidence level surpasses the predetermined threshold, the NMD may perform a command in accordance with the determined intent.

Additional examples of confirmatory conditions that can be evaluated include context information (e.g., current playback state, device name, time of day), user history information (e.g., history of user-issued commands), user voice-identification (e.g., increasing confidence scores if an authorized user's voice is recognized), or any other suitable information or parameter that can provide relevant information regarding whether a particular user input is more or less likely to be a true command utterance.

Finally, at block 1410, the device either forgoes further processing of the voice input (if the evaluation in block 1408 indicates that the detected keyword and/or identified intent is a false positive), or the device performs an action corresponding to the determined intent (if the evaluation in block 1408 indicates that the detected keyword and/or identified intent is a true positive). For instance, the NMD 703 may perform a playback command, which may involve generating one or more instructions to perform the command, which cause the target playback device(s) to perform the first playback command.

In some embodiments, instructing the target playback device(s) to perform the first playback command may be explicitly or implicitly defined. For example, the target playback devices may be explicitly defined by reference in the voice input 780 to the name(s) of one or more playback devices (e.g., by reference to a zone or zone group name). Alternatively, the voice input might not include any reference to the name(s) of one or more playback devices and instead may implicitly refer to playback device(s) 102 associated with the NMD 703. Playback devices 102 associated with the NMD 703 may include a playback device implementing the NMD 703, as illustrated by the playback device 102 d implementing the NMD 103 d (FIG. 1B)) or playback devices configured to be associated (e.g., where the playback devices 102 are in the same room or area as the NMD 703).

Accordingly, there are numerous advantages to wakewordless processing of voice inputs in conjunction with evaluation of voice inputs for confirmation conditions. The various aspects of voice processing and condition evaluation described in the different examples above can be combined, modified, re-ordered, or otherwise altered to achieve the desired implementation.

V. Conclusion

The description above discloses, among other things, various example systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture including, among other components, firmware and/or software executed on hardware. It is understood that such examples are merely illustrative and should not be considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of the firmware, hardware, and/or software aspects or components can be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware, or in any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Accordingly, the examples provided are not the only way(s) to implement such systems, methods, apparatus, and/or articles of manufacture.

The specification is presented largely in terms of illustrative environments, systems, procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations that directly or indirectly resemble the operations of data processing devices coupled to networks. These process descriptions and representations are typically used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it is understood to those skilled in the art that certain embodiments of the present disclosure can be practiced without certain, specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and circuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the embodiments. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims rather than the forgoing description of embodiments.

When any of the appended claims are read to cover a purely software and/or firmware implementation, at least one of the elements in at least one example is hereby expressly defined to include a tangible, non-transitory medium such as a memory, DVD, CD, Blu-ray, and so on, storing the software and/or firmware.

The present technology is illustrated, for example, according to various aspects described below. Various examples of aspects of the present technology are described as numbered examples (1, 2, 3, etc.) for convenience. These are provided as examples and do not limit the present technology. It is noted that any of the dependent examples may be combined in any combination, and placed into a respective independent example. The other examples can be presented in a similar manner.

Example 1: A playback device comprising: at least one processor; at least one microphone configured to detect sound; at least one amplifier configured to drive an electroacoustic transducer; data storage having instructions stored thereon that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the playback device to perform operations comprising: capturing, via the at least one microphone, a voice input; detecting at least one keyword within the voice input, wherein the at least one keyword is at least one of a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device; determining, via a local natural language unit (NLU) of the playback device, an intent based on the at least one keyword, wherein the NLU includes a pre-determined library of keywords comprising the at least one keyword; evaluating the determined intent based at least in part on a volume characteristic of: (i) a keyword portion of the voice input comprising the at least one keyword; (ii) a non-keyword portion of the voice input; or (iii) both; and based on the evaluation, either (i) forgoing further processing of the voice input; or (ii) performing a command in accordance with the determined intent.

Example 2. The playback device of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the evaluating comprises identifying a reduced-volume period within the voice input that exceeds a predetermined time duration, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the identified reduced-volume period exceeds the predetermined time duration, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the identified reduced-volume period does not exceed the predetermined time duration, forgoing further processing of the voice input.

Example 3. The playback device of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the evaluating comprises determining whether a total duration of the voice input exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the voice input duration exceeds the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing; and if the voice input duration does not exceed the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent.

Example 4. The playback device of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the evaluating comprises determining whether a rate of a change of volume at any given point within the voice exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the rate of change exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; if the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing of the voice input.

Example 5. The playback device of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the rate of change comprises a second derivative of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone.

Example 6. The playback device of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the threshold comprises a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone over a predetermined time period.

Example 7. The playback device of any one of the preceding Examples wherein the acoustic energy comprises the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone after performing an acoustic echo cancellation process.

Example 8. A method comprising: capturing, via at least one microphone of a playback device, a voice input; detecting at least one keyword within the voice input, wherein the at least one keyword is at least one of a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device; determining, via a local natural language unit (NLU) of the playback device, an intent based on the at least one keyword, wherein the NLU includes a pre-determined library of keywords comprising the at least one keyword; evaluating the determined intent based at least in part on a volume characteristic of: (i) a keyword portion of the voice input comprising the at least one keyword; (ii) a non-keyword portion of the voice input; or (iii) both; and based on the evaluation, either (i) forgoing further processing of the voice input; or (ii) performing a command in accordance with the determined intent.

Example 9. The method of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein evaluating the at least one keyword comprises identifying a reduced-volume period within the voice input that exceeds a predetermined time duration, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the identified reduced-volume period exceeds the predetermined time duration, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the identified reduced-volume period does not exceed the predetermined time duration, forgoing further processing of the voice input.

Example 10. The method of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a total duration of the voice input exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the voice input duration exceeds the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing; and if the voice input duration do not exceed the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent.

Example 11. The method of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a rate of a change of volume at any given point within the voice exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the rate of change exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; if the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing of the voice input.

Example 12. The method of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the rate of change comprises a second derivative of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone.

Example 13. The method of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the threshold comprises a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone over a predetermined time period.

Example 14. The method of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the acoustic energy comprises the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone after performing an acoustic echo cancellation process.

Example 15. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a playback device, cause the playback device to perform functions comprising: capturing, via at least one microphone of the playback device, a voice input; detecting at least one keyword within the voice input, wherein the at least one keyword is at least one of a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device; determining, via a local natural language unit (NLU) of the playback device, an intent based on the at least one keyword, wherein the NLU includes a pre-determined library of keywords comprising the at least one keyword; evaluating the determined intent based at least in part on a volume characteristic of: (i) a keyword portion of the voice input comprising the at least one keyword; (ii) a non-keyword portion of the voice input; or (iii) both; and based on the evaluation, either (i) forgoing further processing of the voice input; or (ii) performing a command in accordance with the determined intent.

Example 16. The computer-readable medium of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein evaluating the at least one keyword comprises identifying a reduced-volume period within the voice input that exceeds a predetermined time duration, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the identified reduced-volume period exceeds the predetermined time duration, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the identified reduced-volume period does not exceed the predetermined time duration, forgoing further processing of the voice input.

Example 17. The computer-readable medium of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a total duration of the voice input exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the voice input duration exceeds the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing; and if the voice input duration do not exceed the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent.

Example 18. The computer-readable medium of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a rate of a change of volume at any given point within the voice exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the rate of change exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; if the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing of the voice input.

Example 19. The computer-readable medium of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the rate of change comprises a second derivative of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone.

Example 20. The computer-readable medium of any one of the preceding Examples, wherein the threshold comprises a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone over a predetermined time period. 

1. A playback device comprising: at least one processor; at least one microphone configured to detect sound; at least one amplifier configured to drive an electroacoustic transducer; and data storage having instructions stored thereon that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the playback device to perform operations comprising: capturing, via the at least one microphone, a voice input; detecting at least one keyword within the voice input, wherein the at least one keyword is at least one of a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device; determining, via a local natural language unit (NLU) of the playback device, an intent based on the at least one keyword, wherein the NLU includes a pre-determined library of keywords comprising the at least one keyword; evaluating the determined intent based at least in part on a volume characteristic of: (i) a keyword portion of the voice input comprising the at least one keyword; (ii) a non-keyword portion of the voice input; or (iii) both; and based on the evaluation, either (i) forgoing further processing of the voice input; or (ii) performing a command in accordance with the determined intent.
 2. The playback device of claim 1, wherein the evaluating comprises identifying a reduced-volume period within the voice input that exceeds a predetermined time duration, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the identified reduced-volume period exceeds the predetermined time duration, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the identified reduced-volume period does not exceed the predetermined time duration, forgoing further processing of the voice input.
 3. The playback device of claim 1, wherein the evaluating comprises determining whether a total duration of the voice input exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the voice input duration exceeds the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing; and if the voice input duration does not exceed the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent.
 4. The playback device of claim 1, wherein the evaluating comprises determining whether a rate of a change of volume at any given point within the voice exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the rate of change exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing of the voice input.
 5. The playback device of claim 4, wherein the rate of change comprises a second derivative of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone.
 6. The playback device of claim 4, wherein the threshold comprises a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone over a predetermined time period.
 7. The playback device of claim 4, wherein the acoustic energy comprises the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone after performing an acoustic echo cancellation process.
 8. A method comprising: capturing, via at least one microphone of a playback device, a voice input; detecting at least one keyword within the voice input, wherein the at least one keyword is at least one of a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device; determining, via a local natural language unit (NLU) of the playback device, an intent based on the at least one keyword, wherein the NLU includes a pre-determined library of keywords comprising the at least one keyword; evaluating the determined intent based at least in part on a volume characteristic of: (i) a keyword portion of the voice input comprising the at least one keyword; (ii) a non-keyword portion of the voice input; or (iii) both; and based on the evaluation, either (i) forgoing further processing of the voice input; or (ii) performing a command in accordance with the determined intent.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein evaluating the at least one keyword comprises identifying a reduced-volume period within the voice input that exceeds a predetermined time duration, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the identified reduced-volume period exceeds the predetermined time duration, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the identified reduced-volume period does not exceed the predetermined time duration, forgoing further processing of the voice input.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a total duration of the voice input exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the voice input duration exceeds the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing; and if the voice input duration do not exceed the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a rate of a change of volume at any given point within the voice exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the rate of change exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing of the voice input.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the rate of change comprises a second derivative of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the threshold comprises a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone over a predetermined time period.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the acoustic energy comprises the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone after performing an acoustic echo cancellation process.
 15. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a playback device, cause the playback device to perform functions comprising: capturing, via at least one microphone of the playback device, a voice input; detecting at least one keyword within the voice input, wherein the at least one keyword is at least one of a plurality of command keywords supported by the playback device; determining, via a local natural language unit (NLU) of the playback device, an intent based on the at least one keyword, wherein the NLU includes a pre-determined library of keywords comprising the at least one keyword; evaluating the determined intent based at least in part on a volume characteristic of: (i) a keyword portion of the voice input comprising the at least one keyword; (ii) a non-keyword portion of the voice input; or (iii) both; and based on the evaluation, either (i) forgoing further processing of the voice input; or (ii) performing a command in accordance with the determined intent.
 16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein evaluating the at least one keyword comprises identifying a reduced-volume period within the voice input that exceeds a predetermined time duration, the method further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the identified reduced-volume period exceeds the predetermined time duration, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the identified reduced-volume period does not exceed the predetermined time duration, forgoing further processing of the voice input.
 17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a total duration of the voice input exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the voice input duration exceeds the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing; and if the voice input duration do not exceed the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent.
 18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein evaluating comprises determining whether a rate of a change of volume at any given point within the voice exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operations further comprising, based on the evaluation: if the rate of change exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing the command in accordance with the determined intent; and if the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined threshold, forgoing further processing of the voice input.
 19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the rate of change comprises a second derivative of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone.
 20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the threshold comprises a rolling average of the acoustic energy as measured by the at least one microphone over a predetermined time period. 